Kuriszláni Cave

The Kuriszláni sinkhole is one of the caves located in the Aggtelek National Park. The cave, together with the other caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Slovak Karst, is part of the World Heritage. Bats also occur in it.

Description

The cave opens in the Kuriszlánfői sinkhole. It is located a few hundred metres from the Kuriszlánfői spring. The entrance of the Kuriszláni sinkhole is built as a well. Up to 2 m deep it is reinforced with a rectangular concrete shaft, and up to 4 m deep it is reinforced with a concrete and masonry wall. The Kuriszlán well is a periodically active water‑draining cave that absorbs water. It developed in middle Triassic limestone, but at the entrance there is also Permian clay slate. Advanced dripstones can be observed in its passages. One of its significances is that it would probably be easy to reach the part of the Kossuth Cave after the Desperate siphon from here.

In 1972 the cave was first called Kuriszláni sinkhole in the literature (Kérdő 1972). In the literature the cave also appears as Kuriszláni cave (Boldogh 2007), Kuriszláni sinkhole (Bertalan 1976), Kuriszláni water‑drain (Boldogh 2007), Kuriszláni water‑drain cave (Boldogh 2007), Kuriszlánvölgyi sinkhole (Radó 1956), Kuriszlán‑völgyi‑water‑drain cave (Boldogh 2007), Kuriszlán‑völgyi water‑drain cave (Boldogh 2007) and Kurizsláni cave (Berhidai, Cser, Holl 1981).

Research history

In May 1951 the ground collapsed in the Kuriszlán valley, which is the area above the Nagytohonya spring, and precipitation that fell on the surroundings was absorbed here. In 1956 the cave research group of the Department of Mineralogy and Geology of the Budapest University of Technology was working on the Kuriszlánvölgyi sinkhole. In 1965 the cave was discovered by the ÉKME Cave Research Group during its excavation. In 1965 the Kuriszláni sinkhole was 50 m long and 15 m deep. At that time a permanent water flow ran through it, disappearing in the siphon at the end of the cave.

In 1966 the ÉKME Cave Exploration Group, when excavating the 1st Kuriszlán-fői shaft at the border of Jósvafő, could not make much progress with the exploration work due to the large amount of precipitation in the cave. During their surface terrain surveys the group members found several shafts, fissures and cave openings worthy of excavation, for example the 2nd Kuriszlán-fői shaft. A report on the group's 1966 work was published in the 1967 Karst and Cave Research Bulletin. In 1967 members of the Budapest University of Technology Department of Mineralogy and Geology Cave Exploration Group carried out exploration work in the cave, during which blasting was also required.

In 1972 members of the VITUKI Cave Exploration Group demonstrated with water dye the connection between the Kuriszláni shaft and the Nagytohonya spring. The travel time of the tracer material was short. At that time a smaller excavation was carried out in the shaft. According to the list published in the 1976 MKBT Invitation, in 1976 the Papp Ferenc Cave Exploration Group had a research permit for the investigation of the Kuriszláni shaft on the North-Borsod karst. In the manuscript titled Hungary's Cave Registry, completed in 1976, it is written that the Kuriszláni shaft is located in Jósvafő, next to the Kuriszláni hut. The cave entrance is a funnel-shaped shaft. The approximately 16 m deep cave is an old water-collecting cave that has collapsed. The entrance is fenced to prevent animals from falling in. The part of the manuscript describing the cave was written based on three studies.

In the 1981 report of the Papp Ferenc Cave Research Group, its location is marked on a site map showing the placement of caves in the eastern part of the research area of the Papp Ferenc Cave Research Group. It is indicated as Kurizsláni Cave from the Kuriszláni sinkhole to DNy. This site map was published in the 1981 MKBT Report. The 1984 book *Caves of Hungary* contains a description of the collapse in the Kuriszlán Valley that occurred in 1951. In the national cave list of the publication, the cave on the Aggtelek Karst is listed as Kuriszláni collapse. Associated with the list is a 1:500 000 scale map showing the geographic location of the caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Bükk Mountains, on which the geographic location of the cave is shown.

One of the demolition sites of the 1988 central research camp of the Hungarian Karst and Cave Research Society was the Kuriszláni collapse, but the part of Kossuth Cave after the Hopeless siphon could not be reached. During the camp, the entrance vestibule was cleared, the cave entrance was built with reinforced concrete, and blasting was carried out at the narrow sections to widen the passages. According to the report on the research camp, the Kuriszláni collapse is a fissure that opened in the 1960s and has since functioned as an active water sink. It belongs hydrologically to the Kossuth Cave system. As a result of the work, the possibility of further exploration of the cave was created, which was immediately utilized by the Papp Ferenc Cave Research Group at the end of the camp. Attached to the camp report is a photograph by Péter Borzsák, showing the reinforced concrete structure securing the collapse’s unstable entrance.

On July 28, 1988, the cave plan map and the east–west longitudinal section map were compiled. The maps were prepared by Balázs Holl and Ádám Marton. According to the survey, the cave is 26 m deep. The 1988 issue of Karszt és Barlang states that the Papp Ferenc Cave Research Group continued in 1988 the collapse removal and passage securing work at Kuriszláni. Near the Kuriszláni collapse is the Bobby Cave. Since 1995, together with the other caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Slovak Karst, the Kuriszláni collapse has been part of the World Heritage.