Gőte Pothole

Gőte-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

On the Upper Mountain plateau, 74° from the peak of Vecsem-bükk, 460 m, from the boundary stone number XII.43.2. D, about 650 m, the cave entrance is situated 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 the Cickány-pothole, from there DK, at the same level, 20–30 m, on the eastern side of a sinkhole, is the entrance of Gőte-pothole. It is 250 m from Jóbarát-pothole to the east. At the bottom of the sinkhole is the Töbör-alji gorge. Gőte-pothole is in the same sinkhole as Cickány-pothole and its entrance is smaller than that of Cickány-pothole.

The axis direction of its entrance is vertical. The cave was formed in middle Triassic Wetterstein limestone. In the 25 m horizontal extent of the cave, dripstones and pea stones can be observed. Visiting the cave, which can be entered without permission, requires the use of rope‑technical equipment. For exploration, a 10 + 15 m rope is recommended.

The cave occurs in the literature under the names 66 (Kósa 1992), Göte-pothole (Vlk 2016), V/13 (Bertalan 1976) and V-18 (Kósa 1992) and with those designations as well. In 1969 it was first called Gőte-pothole in the literature.

Research history

In June 1967 Attila Kósa discovered the pothole to a depth of 10 m, and then in June 1967 Domokos A., Péter Frojimovics, Attila Kósa and Mária Varga surveyed the cave. Based on the survey Attila Kósa prepared the cave floor plan map and two vertical longitudinal section maps, which were drawn by Éva Haász. A photograph published in the 1969 edition of Karst and Cave showed a small bat hanging in Gőte-pothole. In June 1971 Pál Müller and István Szenthe found a large Megalodontodae, or Megalodontidae, section next to the pothole entrance.

Denes Gyorgy 1974 study published in Karst and Cave mentions the name Gote-pothole in connection with the domestic cave-naming practice. In the manuscript completed by Karoly Bertalan in 1976, on catalogue number 90, it can be read that the Gote-pothole (V/13) is located on Alsó-hegy, Bodvaszilás. The entrance of the Gote-pothole is 350 m from Banana-pothole towards D, on the south side of the tourist trail marked with a blue cross, in a large surface climb. Its entrance is in the same shaft as that of Cickany-pothole. The Gote-pothole, 11.3 m deep and consisting of a single chamber, contains many pea stones. The part of the manuscript describing the cave was written based on manuscript 1. According to the speleological field report made on 30 January 1977 and based on the cave’s August 1975 exploration, the planimetric length of the pothole is 7 m, its actual length 20 m, horizontal extent 7.5 m and vertical extent 11.3 m.

In the 1977 study published in *Karst and Cave* there is a map of Hungary showing the geographical locations of biologically studied caves in Hungary. The map shows the geographical location of Gőte-zsomboly, which is under biological processing. The English-language version of the study was included in the 1977 special issue of the journal. In this study the map also appears, on which the cave name is Gőte Shaft. In the 1984 book *Caves of Hungary* there is a map of Hungary showing the geographical locations of biologically studied caves in Hungary. The map shows the geographical location of Gőte-zsomboly, which is under biological processing. The national cave list of the publication includes the cave on the Aggtelek Karst under the name Gőte-zsomboly with the variant V/13. Associated with the list is a 1:500 000 scale map showing the geographical locations of the caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Bükk Mountains, on which the cave’s geographical location is shown. In 1990 the Vörös Meteor TE Diogenes Cave Research Group had a research permit for the investigation of the cave.

The geographical location of the cave is shown in the figure published in 1992 in Karst and Cave, which presents many of the Lower Mountain's Hungarian part, its shafts and sinkholes. In the book published in 1992 titled Lower Mountain Shaft Atlas, its position is marked on one of the maps showing the Hungarian side of the Lower Mountain plateau. The publication includes the cave's maps made in 1967. On the page where the maps are visible, together with several data, four literary works that mention the cave are listed. In 1992 the MAFC Cave Research Group opened a new section in it and descended to a depth of 25 m. In that year the group prepared a sketch plan of the cave's length‑section map. Since 1995 the cave, together with the other caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Slovak Karst, has been part of the World Heritage. It was one of the possible contact points of the II. Lakatos Cup held in 1995. Among the 24 shafts listed in the announcement, the Gőte shaft was one of the most popular, which also had to be led on a tour outside of competition.

According to the thesis prepared by Attila Nyerges in 1997, the 25 m deep Gőte-pothole is the 22nd deepest cave of the Hungarian part of the Lower Mountains. The 23rd deepest (the 4th water sink cave of the Bába Valley) is also 25 m deep. The Gőte-pothole was one of the locations of the 1999 Lakatos Cup. In the publication of the XV Lakatos Cup held on September 27 2008 it is listed as a cave 56 m long and 25 m deep. The booklet contains the sketch longitudinal‑cross section map of the cave drawn in 1992. It was a possible touch‑point of the competition. In 2015 the Barrandien Cave Exploration Group surveyed the cave. In that year two members of the group, Miroslav Hynšt and Daniel Balvín, re‑measured the pothole and then drew the cave’s longitudinal‑section map and plan map, because the earlier maps were incomplete and inaccurate. The maps made in 2015 depict the cave to a depth of 28 m.