Pötty Pothole

Pötty-zsomboly is one of the caves located in the Aggtelek National Park. 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

On the Upper Mountain plateau, 273° from the Vecsem-bükk summit, 320 m away, in a forest, in a specially protected area, not far from the border fence, the cave entrance opens. From the hunting lodge on the Szabó-pallag, the entrance is to the right, along the earth road that starts at the edge of the large meadow east of the east–west line, heading toward the border. On the earth road one must walk a little more than 120 m to the left‑branching, lower‑quality earth road leading to Almási-zsomboly, Széki-zsomboly and November 7-zsomboly, where on the north‑east edge of a small sinkhole the narrow entrance of Pötty-zsomboly is found. The location of Pötty-zsomboly is marked with the name of the cave on some tourist maps.

Pötty-zsomboly was formed in middle Triassic Wetterstein limestone. The vertical cave has a horizontal extent of 9 m. The unsealed cave can be visited without permission, but only with the use of rope‑technical equipment. Exploration requires 12 m of rope and a rope protector.

Near it lives a mountain pine specimen with a trunk diameter of 80 cm at breast height and a height of over 30 m. In 1979, shells, including a house‑less snail, frog, legless lizard, snake, red‑backed forest beetles and forest mouse remains were identified from the sinkhole.

The cave received its name because of Klára Dunszt, whose nickname was Pötty. The cave also appears in the literature with the designations 07 (Kósa 1992), S‑9 (Kósa 1992), SZ/2 (Kósa 1964) and Sz/2 (Székely 1963). In 1963 the cave was first called Pötty-zsomboly in the literature.

Research History

In the summer of 1960, during a field survey, the entrance of the cave was discovered by the speleologists of the Red Meteor Cave Research Group. The first person to enter was Miklós Rónai, who after the first step slipped and fell safely to the bottom of the sinkhole. In 1963 members of the Red Meteor Cave Research Group precisely measured the location of the cave entrance relative to the hunting lodge on the Szabó-pallag. According to the measurement, the entrance is 400 m away from the hunting lodge at a bearing of 65° 40'. In August 1963 the speleology subgroup of the Red Meteor Cave Research Group surveyed Pötty-zsomboly to a depth of 12 m, after which Kinga Székely prepared a two‑section longitudinal map and a plan map of the cave based on the survey. The plan map shows the position of the two longitudinal sections within the cave.

In the manuscript written by Bertalan Károly and completed in 1976, on card number 114 it reads that the Pötty Shaft is located on Alsó Hill, Bódvasziláspuszta. The cave entrance is 65° 40' and 380 m from the hunting lodge on Szabó-pallet, on the small east‑north side. The cave is 12 m deep. The part of the manuscript describing the cave was written based on one publication. In the 1977 study published in Karszt és Barlang there is a map of Hungary showing the geographical locations of the biologically studied caves in Hungary. The map shows the geographical location of the biologically processed Pötty Shaft. The English‑language version of the study was included in the 1977 special issue of the journal. In this study the map was also published, on which Pötty Shaft is the name of the cave.

According to the speleological field report written on January 30, 1977 and based on the cave's June 1976 exploration, the vertical extent of Pötty-zsomboly is 12 m. In 1979 István Bakos collected animal remains from the pothole, which were identified by József Rácz. In the summer of 1981 members of the MÁFI Optimista Cave Exploration Group toured the pothole. The book titled *Caves of Hungary*, published in 1984, contains a map of Hungary on which the geographic locations of biologically studied caves in Hungary can be seen. The map shows the geographic location of the biologically processed Pötty-zsomboly. In the national cave list of the publication, the cave located on the Aggtelek Karst appears under the name Pötty-zsomboly with the variant SZ/2. Associated with the list is a 1:500 000 scale map showing the geographic locations of caves in the Aggtelek Karst and the Bükk Mountains, indicating the cave’s geographic location. In 1990 the cave’s longitudinal section map and plan map were produced.

The geographic location of Pötty-zsomboly is shown in the figure published in 1992 in *Karst and Cave* depicting the numerous caves, potholes and sinkholes of the Hungarian part of the Lower Mountains. In the book *Atlas of Lower Mountain Potholes* published in 1992, the cave’s geographic location can be observed on one of the maps presenting the Hungarian side of the Lower Mountain plateau. The publication includes maps of the cave made in 1963. Together with several data, eight literary works dealing with the cave are listed. Since 1995 the cave, together with the other caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Slovak Karst, has been part of the World Heritage.

It was one of the possible contact points of the II. Lakatos Cup held in 1995. Among the 24 pits listed in the cup announcement, the Pötty-pit was the most popular. The cave was one of the possible contact points of the 3rd Lakatos Cup held on September 21, 1996. According to the thesis prepared by Attila Nyerges in 1997, the 12 m deep Pötty-pit is the 43rd deepest cave of the Hungarian part of the Alsó-hegy. The 41st deepest (Soltész-pit) and the 42nd deepest (Kilátó-pit) are also 12 m deep. It was one of the locations of the 1999 Lakatos Cup. In the publication of the XV. Lakatos Cup held on September 27, 2008, it is listed as a 12 m deep cave. It was one of the possible contact points of the competition.