Ezüst-hegy No 2 Cave

The Ezüst-hegy 2nd numbered cave was among the specially protected caves of Hungary. It is located in the Pilis Mountains within the Danube–Ipoly National Park. Its peculiarity is that it formed in threefold limestone. It is also presented in tourist guidebooks.

Other names

The cave occurs in the literature as Ezüsthegyi II. sz. barlang (Kordos 1971), Ezüst-hegyi 2.sz.barlang (Eszterhás 1989), Ezüsthegyi II.sz.barlang (Bertalan 1976), Ezüsthegyi felső barlangok (Leél-Őssy 1958), Ezüst-hegyi felső-barlangok (Szenti, Eszterhás 2001), Szafoklész-barlang (Eszterhás 1993), Szofoklész-barlang (Eszterhás 1989), Szofoklész barlang (Kordos 1971) and Szophoklész-barlang (Kárpát 1989). In 1981 the cave was first called Ezüst-hegyi 2. sz. barlang in the literature. Ezüst-hegyi felső barlang is the Ezüst-hegyi 2. sz. barlang and the Papp Ferenc cave.

Description

The entrance of the cave is located in the abandoned large quarry upper part, eastern side, in the E part of the Ezüst-hegy DK area, in the outskirts of Pilisborosjenő, near Budakalász. At the foot of the quarry’s rock wall, at an altitude of 374.8 m above sea level, there is a spacious, 5 m wide, 3 m high, DK‑facing, horizontal axis‑oriented, artificial, rectangular, irregularly shaped entrance. On the upper part of the entrance there are scratches, steering‑wheel inscriptions, painting, and the name of the cave. Next to the entrance there is a rock‑carved inscription “Papp Ferenc‑barlang”, which can cause confusion with the Papp Ferenc cave.

It can be reached on foot over easy terrain. The simplest approach on foot is from the Budapest Csillaghegy suburban railway (HÉV) stop along the tourist trail marked with a red stripe. Some tourist maps show the cave symbol indicating the geographical location of the cave entrance, but the cave name is not on the maps.

In the quarry that houses the Ezüst-hegy No 2 cave there is also much information about two other caves, the Ezüst-hegy No 1 cave, which has been destroyed, and the Ezüst-hegy No 3 cave, which is the Papp Ferenc cave. Moving upward in the quarry courtyard toward the rock wall, first the entrance of the Ezüst-hegy No 2 cave can be seen, which is larger than the entrance of the Papp Ferenc cave, located about 20 metres to the west‑northwest, in the north‑west corner of the quarry, two metres higher.

In fragmented Hárshegy limestone, tectonic movements created a cave with a horizontal extent of 12.5 metres, a vertical extent of 9 metres, a length of 30 metres and a depth of 9 metres. The enclosing rock’s matrix is limestone. The limestone is not penetrated by any passages. Based on the barite crystals on its wall it can be assumed that thermal water formed the branching, multi‑level cave.

Essentially it consists of two spacious, debris‑filled chambers that are connected by a four‑metre, easy‑climb vertical shaft. The side passages are small and close with debris after a few metres. One can descend to a depth of 9 metres inside, where large limestone blocks block the onward path. It was longer than the destroyed Ezüst-hegy No 1 cave. At the bottom of the cave, beneath the limestone, marl is exposed. Most of the debris‑filled, winding passages are traversable by easy climbing with basic caving equipment. It can be visited without a permit.

Research history

In the study published in 1958, written by Leél‑Őssy Sándor, the upper caves of Ezüsthegy are described. According to the description, upper Eocene bryozoan marl layers are present beneath the Hárshegy limestone at the cave on Ezüst‑hegy. In the Kevély‑hegy group the caves are mainly of thermal‑water origin, but there are also karstic ones (Ürömi water‑draining cave) and tectonic ones (Ezüst‑hegy caves). At the end of the Ezüst‑hegy DK, in the upper limestone mines at about 350–360 m above sea level, the two small and narrow shaft caves are located. The larger one is 10 m long and 4 m deep. Because the two caves were not formed in karstified limestone along their entire length, they can only be tectonic fissure caves. In addition to this, later slips and collapses along the inclined bedding plane also played an important role in shaping the current form of the two caves. The two caves turned into a complex debris labyrinth because of mass movements, similar to the Csörgő‑hole. A map sketch showing the Kevély‑hegy group was attached to the study. The map sketch shows the geographic location of the upper caves of Ezüsthegy. In the drawing and the text the two caves are marked with the numbers 7 and 8.

In the 1958 Karst and Cave Research Bulletin a cave description was published, which was written based on the study issued in the Geographical Bulletin. In the book Pilis travel guide, which appeared in 1967, it was reported that in the upper limestone quarry at the southeastern end of Ezüst-hegy there are several small fissure caves. In 1969 István Szenthe examined the expanding quarry walls in detail while writing his university thesis. At the northern tip of the quarry he entered a spacious vertical fissure, which was named Ezüst-hegy 2nd cave. After ten metres he could not proceed further because of collapsed limestone rocks. In his 1969 manuscript the cave is described in detail. István Szenthe mapped it, but that cave map has probably been lost.

The 1970 report of the Speleology Cave Research Group contains a detailed description of the cave. The report states that at the bottom of the cave there is Budai marl. The walls are covered in many places by 0.5–1 cm thick barite III crust. The 10‑metre long and 4‑metre deep cave was formed along two perpendicular lithoclastic zones by the action of breaking hot water. In winter it is filled with snow and, because of its orientation, remains covered with ice until late spring.