Kalap Pothole

Kalap 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. Archaeological finds have been recovered from it.

Description

Its entrance is in the forest, in a mossy rock cleft, on the western edge of a twin sinkhole on the eastern part of the Upper Mountain plateau, north of the Komjáti center. It opens not far from the Rőt-kút Dreher Pothole to the southwest and from the boundary stone number XII.48. To the west of the sinkhole group there is an old north‑south earth road. Some tourist maps mark the cave’s location, but they do not show the cave’s name. Next to the entrance there is a cavity that probably connects with one of Kalap Pothole’s chambers. This cavity also appears in the literature under the name Félembernyi Cave.

The broken, irregularly shaped, vertical‑axis entrance is 1 × 1.3 m wide. The horizontal extent of the pothole is 6 m. The cave formed in middle and upper Triassic limestone along tectonic fractures under the influence of seeping waters. It is a vertically oriented cave with smooth surfaces and finger‑like stalactites. The cave’s characteristic large morphological form is the shaft. Despite its small length, many different mineral formations occur in it, such as micro‑tetrarate‑covered stalactite encrustations and flowstone. Bats also occur in its passages. The unsealed cave can be entered without permission.

In 1973 the cave was first called Kalap Pothole in the literature. The cave also appears in the literature under the names and designations K‑12 (Kósa 1992), Kalap Pothole (Gádor, Hellebrandt 1975), Mogyoró Pothole (Borzsák 2016), Oříšková (Vlk 2019), Orisková (Borzsák 2016) and Private (Kósa 1992).

Research History

In 1965 Székely Kinga surveyed the cave and then prepared the cave’s vertical longitudinal section map and cross‑section map. In 1973 Bárczi Éva collected late Bronze Age pottery from the pothole, which she took to the Herman Ottó Museum. Inventory number: 73.30.2. In the 1973 issue of the Karst and Cave Research Bulletin, issue 2, it is reported that beneath a 4 m thick fill in the pothole, 400–600‑year‑old cattle bones were recovered. Their age was determined based on the calcium‑phosphorus ratio.

In 1975 Kovács J. and Csernavölgyi László surveyed the cave, and then Csernavölgyi László, based on the survey, prepared the cave plan map, longitudinal section map and cross‑section map. In the national cave list of the book *Magyarország barlangjai* published in 1984, the cave located in the Aggtelek Karst appears under the name Kalap‑zsomboly. Associated with the list, the cave’s geographical location is shown on a 1:500 000 scale map presenting the geographical location of the caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Bükk Mountains.

The geographical location of the cave is shown in the figure published in 1992 in *Karszt és Barlang* presenting the numerous pits and sinkholes of the Hungarian part of the Alsó‑hegy. The maps of the cave made in 1975 were published in the 1992 book *Alsó‑hegyi zsombolyatlasz*. The publication mentions that the Félembernyi cave is located next to Kalap‑zsomboly. On one of the maps in the publication showing the Hungarian side of the Alsó‑hegy plateau, the location of Kalap‑zsomboly is marked. Together with several data, two literary references in which the cave is mentioned 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 Nyerges Attila in 1997, the 6 m deep Kalap‑zsomboly is the 55th deepest cave of the Hungarian part of the Alsó‑hegy. The 54th deepest (Iker‑zsomboly), the 56th deepest (Karácsony‑zsomboly), the 57th deepest (Útmenti‑zsomboly), the 58th deepest (Hideg‑lyuk) and the 59th deepest (Dugó‑lyuka) are also 6 m deep. The thesis mentions the Félembernyi cave among the other cave shafts, sinkholes and karst objects of the Hungarian part of the Alsó‑hegy.

According to the publication of the XV. Lakatos Cup held on September 27, 2008, the Kalap pothole is 6 m deep. The cave was not among the competition sites. On July 23, 2009 the cave was surveyed by Pastorek D. and Dobeš P., after which Pastorek D. prepared the cave floor plan map and the longitudinal section map based on the survey. In Gábor Varga’s archaeological summary study published in 2013 this site is not mentioned. In Ádám Artúr Nyírő’s 2015 archaeological thesis the site is mentioned.

In the book on the karst phenomena of Alsó-hegy published in 2019 it is written that the Kalap pothole (Mogyoró-pothole, Oříšková, Privát) is of unknown length and 6 m deep. The cave identification numbers are: in Slovakia 167, in Hungary 5452/88. The cave maps made in 2009 were published in the book. The cave was surveyed in 2009 by Pastorek D. and Dobeš P., and in 2009 Pastorek D. drew the cave maps based on the survey. The maps were digitized in 2015 by Luděk Vlk. A detailed map of 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 Kalap pothole (5452/88, 167) can be seen.