Róka-hegy Poros Cave

The Róka-hegy Poros Cave is one of the caves located in the Pilis Mountains of the Danube–Ipoly National Park, in Budapest District III. It is the longest cave of the quarry on Róka Hill.

Description

In the now abandoned central quarry on Róka Hill, in a nature protection area, on the side of the rock wall called Bástya, to the left of the staircase leading to the edge of the quarry, at a place often visited by tourists, opposite cave No. 5 of the Róka Hill quarry, the entrance to the Róka-hegy Poros Cave opens. The large entrance, 2.5 m high and 0.6 m wide, is clearly visible from everywhere in the central quarry.

The cave formed in Triassic limestone and Eocene sandstone by dissolution below the karst water level. In the multilevel cave, trumpets, spherical chambers and spherical domes can be observed. Various minerals and mineral deposits, calcite, gypsum, barite, celestine, as well as limonitic flows have formed in it. It may be connected with the Róka-hegy Pillar Cave. To explore the Róka-hegy Poros Cave, which can be visited without a permit, basic caving equipment is required.

The cave received its name because of the many dust particles found at its bottom. In 1989 the cave was first called Róka-hegy Poros Cave in the literature. In the literature the cave also appears under the names Poros Cave (Csulák 1982) and Poros Hole (Csulák 1982).

Research History

The cave was discovered as a result of quarrying. The Budapest Lexicon, which saw the light of day in 1973, mentions that from the depressions of quarries operating or abandoned on the top and sides of Róka Hill, two small (water‑origin) pits and several small artificial cavities open. In 1982 two members of the Metro Cave Research Group, György Nohl and Antal Sós, surveyed the cave, and in that year, based on the survey, the basic plan map and side view map of the cave named Poros Hole were drawn. The two maps present the cave at a scale of 1:100. The maps appeared in the 1982 MKBT Report. The cave’s name does not appear in the national cave list in the book *Caves of Hungary* published in 1984.

In 1989 Göröcs D., Kárpátné Fehér Katalin and Kárpát József surveyed the cave, and using the survey the cave longitudinal map was compiled. The map presents the cave at a scale of 1:100. The map is found in the 1989 report of the Acheron Cave Exploration Section. The site plan in the manuscript depicting the Róka-hegy quarry illustrates the geographical location of the cave entrance.