Keleti Quarry No 14 Cave

The Keleti quarry No. 14 cave is one of the caves located in the 3rd district of Budapest, in the Budai Landscape Protection Area of the Danube–Ipoly National Park.

Description

In the eastern part of the Buda thermal karst, on the upper level of the abandoned, two‑storey quarry of Mátyás Hill, on the western, left side of the quarry yard, under a slab of sandstone there is a wide, naturally formed but artificially opened, horizontal entrance oriented along the axis. Its entrance is near the Keleti quarry No. 15 cave and the Keleti quarry No. 16 cave. The cave developed in Upper Eocene limestone, in the Szépvölgyi Limestone Formation. It was formed along a tectonic fault, due to mixing corrosion of thermal waters rising from depth. The collapse‑prone cave slopes. The easily walkable, unrestricted cave can be visited freely with basic caving equipment.

The Keleti quarry No. 14 cave appears in the literature as 14th cave (Acheron 1993), 14. cave (Kárpát 1989), 14.cave (Kárpát 1989), 14.cave (Kárpát 1989), 14. cave (Kárpát 1989), Cápaszája cave (Acheron 1993), Keleti quarry No. 14 cave (Leél-Őssy 1995), Mátyás DK quarry 14.cave (Kárpát 1989) and Mátyás DK quarry 14.cave (Kárpát 1989), as well as possibly Mátyáshegy 9th rock chamber (Bertalan 1976) and Mátyás‑hegy 9th rock chamber (Kordos 1984) as name variants of the Keleti quarry No. 14 cave.

Research history

According to the statements of elderly people living nearby, there were many cavities at the quarry floor level when the quarry was operating. The many small caves on the wall of the upper quarry yard and the numerous cave indications and formations suggest that quarrying destroyed a large cave, or the upper part of a large cave. The caves visible today are remnants of this large cave. From the 1943 edition of Barlangvilág it is known that Károly Bertalan and Béla Albert, within the systematic study of the caves around Buda, examined the 14 small cavities in the quarries of Mátyás Hill and Kecske Hill.

It first appeared in the 1957 Geographical Bulletin, and the study written by Sándor Leél-Őssy mentions the large stone quarry cavities of Mátyás Hill, which formed in nummulite limestone. On the site map in the study that shows the geographical location of the caves of the Buda Hills, the geographical location of the cavities found in the large stone quarry of Mátyás Hill can be observed. (These cavities are listed on the site map among the karstic caves.) In the book titled *Budapest természeti képe* published in 1958 it is written that there are karstic cavities in the wall of the large stone quarry on the D side of Mátyás Hill. In the book *Budapest* edited by András Vitéz and Miklós Pap and published in 1961 it is mentioned that a hiker can see cavities in the stone quarry on the DK side of Mátyás Hill that are similar to the Mátyás Hill cave but are small in size.

According to the report published in the 1963 Karst and Cave Research Bulletin, the BEAC Cave Research Group investigated the K side stone quarry of Mátyás Hill in 1962. On the quarry’s rock wall several openings are visible, of which two (in their present condition) can be called caves. No one has yet dealt with their investigation. Geologist Gábor Láng mapped the cavities. Characteristic spherical chambers indicate the cavities’ karstic origin. The largest is about 4 m in diameter. In addition to the exploration of Barit Cave, research is also promising at two other locations.

The 1964 Karst and Cave Investigation Bulletin mentions that in the stone quarry on Mátyás Hill overlooking the Danube in Budapest's District III, long‑known cavity remnants were found in 1963. The cavity system is highly charged with spherical chambers and hydrothermal fissures. Members of the BEAC Nature‑Walking Department Cave Investigation Group have been carrying out exploratory work at several points of the quarry since 1962. In 1963, working about 200 hours, they were able to advance forward in several places. They saw that the situation was encouraging, but only a great amount of work could yield results. They planned to continue the exploratory work in the quarry in 1964. They began the geological and mineralogical processing of the site, the precise surveying, leveling and mapping of the area. They will most certainly finish the cartographic work in the spring.

The book published in 1966 titled Budai‑hegy Guide states that in another (DK) quarry on Mátyás Hill (not the Mátyás‑hill‑cave quarry) there are also small cave cavities. Nine cavities became known in this stone mine. The 1972 Karst and Cave Bulletin reported that on 24 April 1972 (at the request of the Budapest Police Headquarters), because of their disappearance, members of the Cave Rescue Service inspected the cavities of the eastern quarry of Mátyás Hill.

In the manuscript titled *Hungary's Cave Registry* completed in 1976, among the caves located in the DK quarry of Mátyás Hill, this cave may be briefly described as the 9th rock chamber of Mátyás Hill. The 9th rock chamber of Mátyás Hill has its entrance on the north side of the quarry yard in the DK quarry in Budapest District III. It is a cave of karst origin about 3 m long. The part of the manuscript concerning the cave was written based on a manuscript that no longer exists. The 1978 report of the Imre Vass Cave Research Group states that the group has been researching and mapping the K quarry on Mátyás Hill for several years. In 1978, the young group members broke through several chambers of the quarry, extending some chambers by 2–3 m, but they did not achieve significant results. According to the *Budai Mountains Guidebook* published in 1982, there are small karst-origin cavities in the K side of the Mátyás Hill quarry.