Lehelős Hole

Lehelős Hole is a cave located in the Budai Landscape Protection Zone of the Danube–Ipoly National Park, in Budapest District II.

Description

It opens at the top of a debris deposit about 22 m from the summit of Kecske Hill, in a non‑operational stone quarry located K–DK from the summit, on the D–DNy side of the quarry, at the foot of the quarry’s rock wall. The entrance is not far to the right of the Kecske‑hill ravine. The entrance is irregularly shaped and vertically oriented.

The entrance part formed in Eocene limestone, the rest in Triassic limestone. The passages developed along narrow fissures as a result of the dissolving action of flowing water and narrow passages are still characteristic of the cave. Borsokite, limonite, lublinite and calcite can be observed in it. The cave, closed and protected by a gridded door, is 60 m long, 37.6 m deep and 37.6 m in vertical extent. A permit is required to visit the cave passage, which can be viewed with basic equipment.

It is one of four caves located on Kecske Hill; the other three are the Kecske‑hill ravine, the Lion Cave and the Northern cavity of the Lion Rock.

In literature the cave occurs as Kecske‑hill stone quarry cave (Kraus 2004), Lehelős‑hole (Kraus 2004) – this name was given because in the past, around the entrance crack, snow melted intermittently and in very cold weather the fissure steamed –, Lehelősluk‑cave (Krekács 1989), Lehelősluk cave (Krekács 1989), Lehelős‑hole‑cave (MKBT Programme Booklet 1986), Orgona‑horn (Kraus 2004) – this name was given because of the organ‑shaped stalactite formation visible on the false layer there – and also Orgonahorn (Csók 1959). The name Lehelős‑hole first appears on a map drawn by Márton Juhász in 1987.

Research history

From the 1943 publication *Barlangvilág* it is known that Károly Bertalan and Béla Albert, within the systematic exploration of the caves around Buda, examined 14 small cavities in the stone quarries of Mátyás Hill and Kecske Hill. The cavities of the Óbuda Kecske Hill quarry, which formed in nummulitic limestone, are mentioned in Sándor Leél‑Őssy’s 1957 study *The Caves of the Buda Hills*. On the site map in the study that shows the geographical location of the Buda Hills caves, the geographical positions of the cavities in the Óbuda Kecske Hill quarry can be observed. (These cavities are listed on the map among the water‑formed caves.)

The City Plan Cave Exploration Group's speleologists heard on April 13, 1958 about a place located in the abandoned stone quarry on Kecske Hill that steamed in winter. That year they located the site and began to explore the cavity called the Orgona horn, which was probably the Lehelős hole. In 1959 the group members also examined the cave. The cavities of the Kecske Hill stone quarry are mentioned in the book *Budapest natural geography* that was published in 1959. On August 21, 1960, debris was removed from the cave. In 1960 Krekács Károly noticed that around a crack 15 cm wide, 1 m long and about 50 cm high opening in the corner of the stalactite‑dripping rock wall, the snow melted (seasonally) and the fissure evaporated in very cold weather. Because of the phenomenon he named it the Lehelős hole. The City Plan Cave Exploration Group dismantled the Orgona horn in 1962.

Krekács Károly’s team broke through the debris at the bottom of the DNy part of the quarry in 1977 and 1978, finding two narrow, small fissures. In his final research report of 1983, Sándor Kraus mentions a cave that he first visited on January 10, 1968. This cave is in the stone quarry at the summit of Kecske Hill, in the Ny wall of the stone pit. Stalactite drips were visible on the wall of a tectonic fissure 2–3 m long that could be walked through and continued in the opposite direction. According to the manuscript, the floor of the cave (later) became heavily filled with stone rubble. There are places in the stone quarry worthy of excavation. Kraus’s 2004 report notes that the cave he mentioned in 1983 is the Lehelős hole. The manuscript states that on January 20, 1968 he walked in the Lehelős hole, which at that time was 3–4 m long, and he removed stones from it.

The cave is not listed in the national cave list of the book *Magyarország barlangjai* published in 1984. The description of the cave is found in the 1985 report of the Újpalota Sportegyesület Pannonia Speleoalpin Cave Exploration Group. The report includes two black‑and‑white photographs that show the cave. The manuscript contains a site plan showing the geographical location of the cave. Károly Krekács and his team broke through the place that seemed promising. The exploration was difficult because of the many loose rocks at the end of the cave, and the rock wall above also collapsed. Károly Krekács gave the new cave the name Lehelősluk cave and notified the OKTH Cave Department of the discovery on 28 March 1986. The USE Pannónia Cave Exploration Group had a research permit for cave exploration on 15 July 1986. After the group members received the research permit required for cave exploration, they continued to explore the cavity. Sándor Kraus and Károly Krekács were in the cave on 11 July 1987.