Keleti quarry No 7 Cave

The Keleti quarry No. 7 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

On the K side of the Buda thermal karst, at the upper mine level of the abandoned two‑storey quarry of Mátyás Hill DK, on the right‑hand side of K, facing the DK rock wall of É, its entrance is at a relative height of 15 m. The entrance of the Keleti quarry No. 7 cave and that of the nearby Keleti quarry No. 6 cave are at roughly the same height, their entrances being 5 m apart. The entrance is natural in character but opened by mining, irregular in shape and horizontally oriented.

The unfinished cave was formed along a tectonic fissure by the dissolving action of rising thermal waters from depth. It can be visited with a permit and basic cave‑tour equipment.

In the literature the Keleti quarry No. 7 cave also appears under the names 7th cave (Acheron 1993), 7th cave (Fehér 1994), 7. cave (Kárpát 1984), 7.cave (Kárpát 1984), 7.cave (Kárpát 1984), 7 cave (Kárpát 1984), 7th object (Fehér 1994), 7th cavity (Kárpát 1983), Keleti quarry 6‑7 cave (Leél‑Őssy 1995), Keleti quarry 7 cave (Baja 1998), Kormos cave (Fehér 1994), Kürtős cave (Fehér 1994) and Mátyás‑h. DK 7th cave (Kárpát 1984).

Research history

According to the statements of elderly people living nearby, there were many cavities on the quarry floor 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 Bertalan Károly and Albert Béla, within the systematic study of the caves around Buda, examined the 14 small cavities in the quarries of Mátyás Hill and Kecske Hill.

The 1957 issue of Geographical Gazette reported, in a study by Sándor Leél-Őssy, the large stone quarry cavities of Mount Mátyás, which formed in nummulite limestone. In the map accompanying the study that shows the geographical location of the caves of the Buda Hills, the location of the cavities in the large quarry of Mount Mátyás can be seen. (These cavities are listed in the map among the karstic caves.) The book titled Budapest Natural Pictures, published in 1958, states that the wall of the large quarry on the side of Mount Mátyý's D contains karstic cavities. The book titled Budapest, edited by András Vitéz and Miklós Pap and published in 1961, mentions that a hiker can see cavities in the quarry on the side of Mount Mátyás' DK, which are similar to the Mount Mátyás cave but smaller.

The report published in the 1963 Karst and Cave Exploration Bulletin mentions that the BEAC Cave Exploration Group explored the K side quarry of Mount Mátyás in 1962. A few openings are visible in the rock face of the quarry, of which two (according to their present condition) can be called caves. No one has yet studied them in detail. Geologist Gábor Láng mapped the cavities. Characteristic dome chambers indicate the chambers’ karstic origin. The largest is about 4 m in diameter. In addition to the exploration of the Barit Cave, research is promising at two other sites.

The 1964 Karst and Cave Investigation Bulletin mentions that in the stone 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 spherical chambers and hydrothermal fissures. Members of the BEAC Nature Hiking Section Cave Investigation Group have been conducting exploratory work at several points of the quarry since 1962. In 1963, working about 200 hours, they were able to advance forward at several locations. They saw that the situation was promising, 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‑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), because of their disappearance, members of the Cave Rescue Service inspected the cavities of the eastern quarry of Mátyás Hill. The 1978 report of the Vass Imre Cave Investigation Group states that the group has been researching and mapping the K‑quarry on Mátyás Hill for several years. Some chambers of the quarry were broken into by the young group members in 1978, resulting in the extension of several chambers by 2–3 m, but no significant result was achieved. According to the Budai‑hegy Guide, which saw the light of day in 1982, there are small water‑origin cavities in the K‑side quarry of Mátyás Hill.

On February 6, 1983, Sándor Kraus saw that at the upper edge of the small quarry, where the mountain slope ends, there are two cavities in the slate rock. The Acheron Cave Research Department began to explore and document the quarry cavities in 1983. Katalin Fehér Kárpátné and József Kárpát compiled the map of the Mátyás Hill DK quarry in 1983, on which the location and floor plan of the Eastern quarry cave No. 7 are also shown. According to the map, the cave is situated at an altitude of 235 m above sea level. József Kárpát drew a topographic map in that year, showing the location of the Mátyás Hill cave and the DK quarry cavities. On the map the cavities are renumbered.