Cickány Pothole

Cickány Pothole is one of the caves located in the Aggtelek National Park area. Together with the other caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Slovak Karst, the cave has been part of the World Heritage since 1995.

Description

It opens on the Upper Mountain plateau, 450 metres from the peak of Vecsem-bükk, at 74°, in a specially protected area. Approached from the Jóbarát Pothole side, to the left of the tourist trail marked with a red T sign, also called the pothole educational trail, directly next to Gőte Pothole, north‑west of it, on the same level, 20–30 metres away, on the north‑west side of the sinkhole, at the foot of a small rock wall is its entrance. It is located north‑west of Jóbarát Pothole, 250 metres away. At the bottom of the sinkhole is the Töbör‑alji chasm. Cickány Pothole is in the sinkhole that contains Gőte Pothole. The entrance of Cickány Pothole is larger than the entrance of Gőte Pothole.

The axis of its entrance is vertical. It formed in middle Triassic Wetterstein limestone. Its horizontal extent is 10 metres. It is mainly vertically extended. At the bottom there is an 8×4 metre chamber, whose filling consists of material that fell in from the surface. Dripstones can also be observed inside. Access requires a permit and the use of rope‑technical equipment. For viewing, it is recommended to use a 20‑metre rope, a screw‑type piton, and two carabiners.

The cave occurs in literature under the names 67 (Kósa 1992), Rejsčí priepasť (Vlk 2019), V/12 (Bertalan 1976) and V‑19 (Kósa 1992) and with those designations.

Research History

In August 1967 Attila Kósa discovered the cave. In August 1967 Domokos A., Péter Frojimovics, Attila Kósa and Mária Varga surveyed the cave, after which Attila Kósa prepared the basic plan map of the cave and two vertical longitudinal section maps based on the survey. The maps were drawn by Éva Haász. The cave is presented on the maps at a scale of 1:100. György Dénes’s 1974 study published in Karst and Cave mentions the name Cickány Pothole in connection with the domestic cave‑naming practice.

In a manuscript written by Bertalan Károly and completed in 1976, entry number 78 states that the Cickány shaft (V/12) is located in Bódvaszilas, on the Lower Hill. It is 350 m from the Banana shaft to D, on the south side of the blue cross marked tourist trail, on the large mountain slope side of the road, where the entrance to the Cickány shaft is located. It opens in the same chamber as the Gőte shaft. The 18 m deep Cickány shaft consists of a single fissure. The part of the manuscript concerning the cave was written based on a manuscript.

According to the speleological field report dated 30 January 1977, which was completed based on the August 1975 exploration of the Cickanny shaft, the cave’s planimetric length is 5 m, its actual length is 20 m, its horizontal extent is 9 m and its vertical extent is 18 m. In the 1977 issue of *Karst and Cave* there is a map of Hungary showing the geographical locations of the caves in Hungary that have been studied biologically. The map shows the geographical location of the Cickány shaft, which is under biological study. The English-language version of the study was included in the 1977 special issue of the journal. In this study the map also shows the name of the cave as Cickány Shaft.

In the book *Magyarország barlangjai* published in 1984 there is a map of Hungary on which the geographical locations of the biologically studied caves in Hungary can be seen. The map shows the geographical location of Cickány-pothole, which is under biological processing. In the national cave list of the publication the cave located in the Aggtelek Karst appears under the name Cickány-pothole with the variant V/12. Related to the list, the geographical location of the cave is shown on a 1:500 000 scale map presenting the geographical locations of the caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Bükk Mountains. Its location is also shown in the figure published in 1992 in *Karszt és Barlang* presenting many of the Hungarian parts of the Lower Mountains, their potholes and sinkholes. In the 1992 book *Alsó-hegyi zsombolyatlasz* its position is marked on one of the maps showing the Hungarian side of the Upper Plateau of the Lower Mountains, and the publication includes maps made in 1967. On the page where the maps appear, together with several data, three literary references concerning the cave are listed.

Since 1995 the cave, together with the other caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Slovak Karst, has been part of the World Heritage. According to the thesis prepared by Attila Nyerges in 1997, the 18 m deep Cickány-pothole is the 33rd deepest cave of the Hungarian part of the Alsó-hegy. The 34th deepest (Fazekas-pothole) is also 18 m deep. It was one of the locations of the 1999 Lakatos Cup. In the publication of the XV Lakatos Cup held on 27 September 2008 it is listed as an 18 m deep cave. The booklet also contains a plan map of the cave of unknown date and creator and a vertical longitudinal section map, in which the cave’s installation diagram is also shown. The cave was one possible contact point of the competition.

In the book about the karst phenomena of the Alsó-hegy published in 2019 it is written that the Cickány-pothole is 24 m long and 18 m deep. The cave identification numbers are: in Slovakia 67, in Hungary 5452/40, other V/12. The cave was surveyed at an unknown time, and the cave maps were also made at an unknown time. The maps were digitized in 2014 by Luděk Vlk. The book published the cave maps made at an unknown time, but without an installation diagram for the longitudinal section map. A detailed map of the Alsó-hegy was attached to the publication. The map was made by Luděk Vlk, Mojmír Záviška, Ctirad Piskač, Jiřina Novotná, Miloš Novotný and Martin Mandel. On the map, where caves and potholes are marked with black dots, the geographical location of the Cickány-pothole (5452/40, 67) can be seen.