Düdensuyu Cave

Düdensuyu Cave (Altınbeşik Cave) is a cave located in the district of Ibradı, Antalya.

Altınbeşik Düdensuyu cave was first discovered in 1966 during research on the Oymapınar Dam in the region. It takes its name from the Altınbeşik hill located in its upper part.

In the years 1966-1967, initial attempts were made with British and French speleologists and it was introduced to the public.

The water emerging from the cave is connected underground with Lake Beyşehir. A paint experiment conducted on water that escaped to a spring on Mada Island north of Lake Beyşehir colored the water that emerges from Düdensuyu cave and mixes into the Manavgat River, thus proving this underground connection.

Altınbeşik Düdensuyu cave extends over two levels. The cave is entered by boat over an underground lake 200 m long. At the end of this lake there are travertine formations. From the end of the lake, a 44 m vertical travertine formation leads to the second level, and from there a thin, long, shallow lake 130 m in length begins. Up to the end of the second level, small ponds and, in the middle part, a very large and high hall with limestone blocks that have collapsed allow progress of about 1.5 km. This part of the cave has partially become fossilized; the side branches on the right and left of the upper level have not yet been explored.

In 1985 a Japanese caving group of ten people conducted research in the cave; they reported that from the 44 m wall at the end of the first lake, they dived through a siphon shaped like a membrane to the back side of the siphon, passed many lakes over a sandy floor, and advanced 3500 m into the mountain.

In 1992, divers belonging to the Middle East Technical University underwater diving team, who dive the cave siphons, dived into the underground lake inside the cave, but they could not find the mouth of the siphon that provides the back passage.

Research in the cave has not yet been completed. Even when the cave is opened to tourism, traversing the entire system is not the issue. Since the Düden water is still an active system, it has been opened to tourism with this condition in mind. On rainy days there is a Düden surge and a very large amount of water comes out of the cave.