Nádaskai Pothole

Nádaskai-zsomboly is one of the caves located in the Aggtelek National Park area. Together with the other caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Slovak Karst, the cave has been part of the World Heritage since 1995.

Description

The entrance of Nádaskai-zsomboly lies on the Upper Mountain plateau, above the Tornanádaska Hadik Castle, 79° from the peak of Vecsem-bükk, 3180 m from it, and about 200 m from Borsodi-zsomboly. On the Hungarian side of Upper Mountain this is the easternmost cave. Nearby is the Humusz-hole. From Tornanádaska one must walk on the tourist‑signposted yellow‑band road to the edge of the plateau, where, turning off the tourist trail toward the K direction, the entrance of Nádaskai-zsomboly is reached, which is the highest point of the cave. Tourist maps mark the location of the cave. The large entrance of the cave opens on the southern side of a large chamber.

The entrance shaft of the cave is 2–3 m in diameter and leads to a chamber. Beautiful dripstones can be seen in the chamber. The horizontal extent of the cave is 7.5 m. The unsealed cave can be traversed without permission using a 20 m rope and rope‑technical equipment.

In the literature the cave also occurs under the names Nádaskai-sziklaüreg (Csernavölgyi, Hegedűs, Molnár 1977), Nádaskai sziklaüreg (Bertalan 1976) and Nádaskai zsomboly (Balázs 1957). In 1965 the cave was first called Nádaskai-zsomboly in the literature. The MKBT Report 1975 second‑semester publication mentions a cave named Lombos-zsomboly, which may, according to László Kordos, be the Nádaskai-zsomboly.

Research History

According to the 1957 description it is 10 m deep and 10 m long, and it was explored, surveyed and described by Ottó Kadić on 28 October 1921. The manuscript also notes that Kadić’s notes were no longer found. In 1974, under the leadership of Anna Balás, speleologists of the Kossuth Lajos University Tóthfalusi Sándor College dismantled a cave called Lombos-zsomboly, which, according to László Kordos, may have been the Nádaskai-zsomboly. During the dismantling, human, dog, wild boar, deer, elk and Capra bone remains were collected. Based on the entry on 6 November 1975, a speleological field report written in 1977 named it Nádaskai-sziklaüreg. According to the field report, the mapped cave’s plan length is 8 m, its actual length is 27 m, its horizontal extent is 8.5 m and its vertical extent is 16.5 m.

In the manuscript titled *Hungary's Caves* completed in 1976, the Nádaskai-zsomboly is described as two separate caves, named Nádaskai sziklaüreg (cave number 108) and Nádaskai zsomboly (cave number 109). According to the manuscript, the Nádaski stone cavity is located on the Lower Hill, in Tornanádaska. The entrance to the cave is at the foot of the ledge on the edge of the plateau of the Lower Hill. In the water‑collecting type cave, Kadić Ottokár conducted excavations in 1921 and surveyed the rock cavity. In Kadić Ottokár’s cave register it is cave number 83. The part of the manuscript describing the cave was written based on one manuscript. The Nádaskai zsomboly is located on the Lower Hill, in Tornanádaska. The entrance to the cave is on the side of the Lower Hill, above the Hadi‑k Castle in Tornanádaska. The 10 m long cave was surveyed by Kadić Ottokár. In Kadić Ottokár’s cave register (Hungarian Speleological Society) it is cave number 84. The part of the manuscript describing the cave was written based on one manuscript.

In 1978, four members of the Red Meteor Sports Club Biotectonic Speleology Group (Csöndör Gyula, Hegedűs Gyula, Heltay Tamás and Mikó Judit) surveyed the cave, and using the survey they produced the cave plan map and two vertical longitudinal section maps. According to one of the vertical longitudinal section maps the cave is 15.1 m deep. The cave maps drawn in 1978 were published for the first time in print in the 1978 report of the Hungarian Speleological and Karst Society. At the Hungarian Karst and Speleology Society's 1982 National Field Meeting, one of the hiking destinations was the Nádaskai-zsomboly.

In the national cave list of the book *Magyarország barlangjai* published in 1984, the cave on the Aggtelek Karst is listed as two separate caves. One cave is named Nádaskai-zsomboly, the other cave is named Nádaskai-sziklaüreg. Related to the list, the geographic locations of the caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Bükk Mountains are shown on a 1:500 000 scale map, indicating the geographic location of the two caves. In the book *Alsó-hegyi zsombolyatlasz* published in 1992, a topographic map showing the location of the cave appeared in print for the first time, and the maps of the cave edited in 1978 were published again. Together with several data, three literary works in which the cave is mentioned are listed.

Since 1995, the cave has been part of the World Heritage together with the other caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Slovak Karst. According to the thesis prepared by Attila Nyerges in 1997, the 15 m deep Nádaskai-zsomboly is the 38th deepest cave of the Hungarian part of the Alsó-hegy. The 37th deepest (Kopaszgally-oldali-barlang) is also 15 m deep. The thesis mentions the Humusz-lyuk among the other cave shafts, sinkholes and karst objects of the Hungarian part of the Alsó-hegy. The Nádaskai-sziklaüreg and the Nádaskerti-sziklaüreg are among the caves located in cadastral unit 5450 (Alsó-hegy). According to the publication of the XV. Lakatos Cup held on 27 September 2008, the Nádaskai-zsomboly is a 15 m deep cave, which was not among the competition sites that year.