Széki Pothole

The Széki-pothole is one of Hungary's specially protected caves. It is located in the Aggtelek National Park. Together with the other caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Slovak Karst, the cave is part of the World Heritage. It is one of the eight specially protected caves of Bódvaszilas.

Description

On the Upper Mountain plateau, near the state border, 130 metres from the border, to the south, on the upper rim of one of the small-diameter shafts of a triple shaft about 500 metres from the hunting lodge on the Szabó-pallet, there is an entrance one and a half metres in diameter. Its location is marked on some tourist maps with the name of the cave. About 120 metres south of Almási-pothole it opens. In the cave’s shaft, lower down, about 10 metres from the Széki-pothole entrance, the November 7-pothole entrance can be seen.

It developed in middle Triassic Wetterstein limestone as a cave with a horizontal extension of 25 metres. Its entrance shaft is 35 metres vertically extensive, with smooth walls and free of formations. From the shaft a small side passage leads to the Great Hall. The Great Hall has a floor area of 130 square metres, on average eight metres wide, about eight metres high and 20 metres long. The hall contains many stalactites. Here straw stalactites, flowstone stalactites, pendant stalactites, stalactite curtains and stalactite columns can be seen.

Its special formations are the many translucent, large-sized draperies that appear as branching crystal groups. The hall contains the largest pendant stalactite. It is a car thickness and two metres long. Between the clay and debris at the bottom of the hall a six‑metre narrow shaft leads to the deep point. Access requires permission from the Aggtelek National Park Directorate and the use of technical equipment. Only very thin cave divers can reach its deepest point.

From its filling many Holocene bones were recovered and the filling still contains many Holocene bones. Found in it were Apodemus, brown frog, bat, forest frog, forest mouse, forest vole, European hedgehog, shrew, goat turtle, snake, common mole, weasel, field vole, large-eared bat and deer bone. According to the study written by Sándor Boldogh and published in the publication “ANP füzetek”, the cave is a valuable mating cave for bats and the site is under very significant load.

One of the eight caves of Bódvaszilas that are specially protected, the other seven are Almási-zsomboly, Frank cave, the 2nd water intake cave on the Kopaszgally side, Kopasz-vigasz cave, Meteor cave, Szabó-pallagi-zsomboly and Vecsembükki-zsomboly.

It was named Széki-zsomboly by István Szenthe (Kraus 2001) because of the name of Székely Kinga (SZÉkely KInga). The cave also occurs in the literature under the names 47 (Kósa 1992), S-7 (Kósa 1992), S/7 (Börcsök, Elekes, Németh, Nyerges 1997), Sedmačtyřicitka (Kósa 1992) and Sedmactyricitka (Börcsök, Elekes, Németh, Nyerges 1997).

Research history

The entrance of the cave was probably open for a long time. In 1973 the VMTE Tectonics Cave Research Group participated in its exploration. According to a paper by Attila Nyerges published in 2003, the lower part could be reached into the chamber called Nagy-terem by removing the entrance debris. The existence of this part of the cave was also inferred before the first entrance based on the magical‑wand investigation by Michael Kipp. On 11 June 1973 Miklós Gádoros surveyed the Nagy-terem in Széki-zsomboly and then prepared a draft plan map of the chamber. In September 1973 B. Klingenfuss prepared the cave plan map, longitudinal section map, and a drawing showing the cave entrance. On 9 November 1974 Peter Tihanyi and the Foton Cave Research Group collected Holocene vertebrate remains from the Nagy-terem. At that time the group prepared the photographic documentation of Széki-zsomboly.

In 1977 the Speleological Survey Group of the Tectonics Department surveyed the cave, then based on the survey prepared the cave's plan map and two longitudinal section maps. According to the status on December 31, 1977 (NPCB Bulletin May 1978) the 50 m deep Széki sinkhole on the Aggtelek karst is the 48th deepest cave in the country. According to the compilation published in the 1977 Yearbook of Karst and Caves, on December 31, 1977 the 50 m deep Széki sinkhole located on the Aggtelek karst, whose depth was unknown in 1976 and 1975, was the 53rd deepest cave in Hungary. The 52nd deepest cave (Kurta‑bérci gorge cave) is also 50 m deep. This compilation is more up‑to‑date than the list published in the May 1978 NPCB Bulletin. Based on the maps made in 1977 it was determined that the Széki sinkhole is 50 m deep.

The publication edited by László Lénárt in 1977 mentions that the Marcel Loubens Speleological Survey Group had at some point visited the Szécki sinkhole. In the autumn of 1978 members of the Imre Vass Speleological Survey Group collected a small amount of sediment samples from the cave fill, which were examined from an archaeological perspective by József Rácz. The sample contained plant seeds, snail shells, and vertebrate remains. In 1981, within the speleobiology program of the Botanical Department of the Natural History Museum, botanical collecting was also carried out in the Szécki sinkhole. The speleologists of the BEAC Speleological Survey Group assisted the botanists in their work.

At the 1982 National Hiking Assembly of the Hungarian Karst and Cave Research Society, the cave was one of the hiking destinations. The cave was omitted from the national cave list in the book *Caves of Hungary* published in 1984. According to the status as of December 31, 1987, Széki-zsomboly, with a vertical extent of 50 m among the 5 450 cave cadastral units, is Hungary’s 67th largest cave by vertical extent. The 66th largest cave by vertical extent (the 4th cave of Keselő Hill) also has a vertical extent of 50 m. According to the compilation, the depth list published in 1977 in *Karst and Cave* lists Széki-zsomboly as 50 m deep.