Keleti quarry No 5 Cave

The Keleti quarry No. 5 cave is one of the caves located in Budapest’s District III, in the Buda 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 the Mátyás Hill (DK), on the side facing the É‑i rock wall (DK), about 20 m up, are the three closely spaced, tunnel‑like entrances that are already visible from a distance. The entrances open to the right above the nearby Keleti quarry No. 3 cave and the nearby Keinti quarry No. 4 cave. The K‑entrance is 40 cm wide and 1.5 m high. The middle entrance is 65 cm wide and 1.4 m high. The N‑entrance is 55 cm wide and 55 cm high. The entrances are natural but were opened due to mining, they are rectangular in shape and oriented horizontally.

It formed in Upper Eocene limestone, in the Szépvölgy Limestone Formation. It developed along a tectonic fault where the rising thermal waters from depth dissolved rock below the water table. It was created by the connection of three dome‑chambers. The dome‑chambers indicate a hydrothermal origin of the cave. The single-level, horizontal cave’s characteristic passage types are the circular and elliptical passage types. On the walls of the dome‑chambers, up to almost the same height, there is a stalactitic, pebble‑stone crust and also limonite. These indicate the former water level. No other formations are present.

There is a viewing mirror on the outer half of the middle entrance. Fossils, moss animals, Pecten species prepared from the enclosing rock can be seen in the cave. Its horizontal extent is 6 m. The floor is earthy, porous, trodden, partly covered with leaf litter. On the cave ceiling there are scratches, scribbles, gouges despite the difficulty of accessing the cave. It is not recommended to climb up to the cave from below because of the very fragile and crumbly rock. From above it is advisable to descend to the entrances, which requires a rope at least 25–27 m long due to the distant anchoring point. It can be traversed easily without basic cave‑walking equipment.

In 2004 the cave was first called Keleti quarry No 5 cave in the literature. In the literature Keleti quarry No 5 cave also appears as 5th cave (Acheron 1993), 5th numbered cave (Fehér, Fritz 1996), 5. cave (Kárpát 1984), 5.cave (Kárpát 1984), 5th cavity (Kárpát 1983), Keleti quarry 5th cave (Gazda 2004) and Keleti quarry No 5 cave (Leél-Őssy 1995), and possibly also as Mátyáshegy 8th rock cavity (Bertalan 1976) and Mátyás‑hegy 8th rock cavity (Kordos 1984) which are name variants of Keleti quarry No 5 cave.

Research history

According to the statements of nearby elderly residents, many cavities existed at the quarry floor level when the stone mine was operating. The many small caves on the wall of the upper mine 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 Cave World it is known that Károly Bertalan and Béla Albert, within the systematic exploration of the caves around Buda, examined 14 small cavities in the Mátyás‑hegy and Kecske‑hegy quarries.

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 nummulitic 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 phreatic caves.) In the book titled *Budapest természeti képe* published in 1958 it is written that phreatic cavities are present 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 there is mention that a hiker can see cavities in the stone quarry on the DK side of Mátyás Hill, which are similar to the Mátyás Hill cave but small in size.

The report published in the 1963 Karst and Cave Research Bulletin mentions that 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. The characteristic spherical chambers indicate the cavities’ phreatic 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 quarry on Mátyás Hill in Budapest's District III, overlooking the Danube, long‑known cavity remains were found in 1963. The cavity system is highly charged with dome chambers and hydrothermal fissures. Members of the BEAC Nature Hiking Section 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 lot 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 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‑hegy 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), due to their disappearance, members of the Cave Rescue Service inspected the cavities of the eastern quarry of Mátyás Hill.