Szabó-pallag Pothole

The Szabó-pallagi-zsomboly is one of the specially protected caves of Hungary. It is located in the Aggtelek National Park. It is the 14th deepest cave in Hungary and the second deepest cave of the Aggtelek Karst. (The deepest is the Vecsembükki-zsomboly.) The Szabó-pallagi-zsomboly is also often called the Baglyok fissure. Together with the other caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Slovak Karst, the cave has been part of the World Heritage since 1995. It is one of the eight specially protected caves of Bódvaszilas. Besides the Vecsembükki-zsomboly and the Almási-zsomboly, the best‑known zsomboly is the one on Alsó Hill.

Description

It is located on Alsó Hill, on the Szilasi plateau. It is reachable via the blue‑marked tourist trail of the National Blue Trail, about 300 metres east of the hunting lodge on Szabó-pallag, on the side of a large and flat karst basin that has a large entrance. North of the zsomboly, in the first basin, is the Játék Cave, which is situated 105 metres from the zsomboly.

Its entrance is divided into two parts by a stone wall. As with all zsomboly‑type caves, vertical passages are characteristic of the cave. This is the most complex shaft cave on Alsó Hill. It developed in Triassic limestone along parallel fissures. Tectonic preparation played an important role in its formation. Giant shafts with diameters larger than five metres approach very closely, and the Entrance Shaft reaches the surface. Its passages are very heavily broken.

Spherical stalactites, pea stones and variously colored and shaped dripstones, such as multi‑square‑metre flowstones, pendant dripstones, helicites and stalactite flags can be seen there. Its best known formation is the Locomotive, a large overturned stalactite on which young stalactite clusters have grown. It is not closed, but a permit from the Aggtelek National Park Directorate is required for viewing. Rope‑technical equipment must be used for the tour and good physical condition is important for moving inside it. From a rope‑technical point of view it is one of the most difficult caves to traverse in the country.

The 60‑metre‑deep Entrance Shaft is, according to the depth order of the entrance shafts of the lower‑mountain pits, the third deepest entrance shaft. The Drúz shaft in the pit, which extends from a depth of eight metres to 110 metres, i.e. 102 metres deep, is considered Hungary’s almost deepest continuous shaft, but the large ledge called Balcony at 45 metres fairly separates its upper and lower parts. The Drúz shaft can also be regarded as a dome, because from the passages leading to it one can start both downwards and upwards inside the Drúz shaft. The Drúz shaft and the Drúz dome were named after the nickname of László Lukács.

The eighth longest cave of the Aggtelek Karst, after the Baradla cave, the Peace cave, the Freedom cave, the Vass Imre cave, the Meteor cave, the Kossuth cave and the Danca cave. One of the eight caves of Bódvaszilas that are specially protected, the other seven are the Almási pit, the Frank cave, the 2nd water‑draining cave on the Kopaszgally side, the Kopasz‑vigasz cave, the Meteor cave, the Széki pit and the Vecsembük pit.

The cave occurs in the literature under the names 21 (Kósa 1992), Baglyok-szakadéka (Kósa 1964), Baglyok Szakadéka (Kósa 1968), Baglyok szakadéka (Horváth, Máté 1975), Baglyok szakadéka-zsomboly (Kósa 1992), S-2 (Kósa 1992), Sz/4 (Kósa 1964), SZ/4 (Kósa 1964), Szabópallag (Jakucs 1957), Szabópallagi-zsomboly (Rónai 1965), Szabó-Pallagi-zsomboly (Bertalan, Schőnviszky 1973–1974), Szabó pallagi zsomboly (Strömpl 1922–1925), Szabó-pallag Shaft (Kordos 1977) and Szabó-parlagi zsomboly (Balázs 1958). In 1912 the cave was first called Szabó-pallagi-zsomboly in the literature, in Gábor Strömpl’s study. The name Baglyok szakadéka was given by locals.

Research history

The first written mention of the cave can be read in the 1911 diary of Pál Kornél Scholtz. In 1911 an attempt was made to explore the pit, but it failed due to lack of suitable technical equipment. At that time a measurement was attempted to determine its depth, which was 62 m deep. In the summer of 1911 Gábor Strömpl also visited the cave and in his 1912 publication wrote that it has a double entrance. In 1927 four members of the Budapest University Tourist Association—Hubert Kessler, András Beliczay, János Frank and Gyula Kiss—successfully descended into the entrance shaft. Hubert Kessler directed the descent. They reached a depth of 63 m and saw no chance for further passage discovery.

In Eugenio Boagan’s 1929 published study the cave’s longitudinal section map and plan map appeared. In 1957 István Beliczai, László Szikra and Sándor Veres tried to reach the bottom of the entrance shaft, but only István Beliczai succeeded. An almost accident occurred then due to the hemp ropes and the wetness of the ledge.

In 1961 the Red Meteor TE speleologists widened one of the narrow fissures of its lower part by blasting, thereby increasing its depth by 12 m. At that time it became the fourth deepest cave of Alsó-hegy with a depth of 76 m. In 1963 members of the Red Meteor Cave Exploration Group precisely measured the entrance location relative to the Szabó-pallag hunting lodge. According to the measurement, the entrance was 310 m away from the hunting lodge in the direction 238° 00'. In the summer of 1964 the Red Meteor TE members prepared a map of the cave, but this map does not show the part below the cave’s narrow passage. Attila Kósa mentions it several times in his 1964 Karst and Cave Exploration Bulletin article titled “On the Issues of Stalactite Formation”. Once it is marked as Sz/4, on the published site plan it is labeled SZ/4 and described as 86 m deep. According to the compilation published in the 1966 second‑semester issue of Karst and Cave, with a depth of 76 m it was the third deepest stalactite in the Hungarian part of Alsó-hegy and one of the 60‑m deep pits was the second deepest continuous cave pit in the Hungarian part of Alsó-hegy. In 1968 the first complete map of the cave was compiled. The mapping was led by Attila Kósa.