You may already know that I am attracted to caves with a mixture of awe and admiration. Last Saturday (16 July) we went straight there from the Geology Garden. I know the place, I have been there several times, but I can never get tired of this monumental natural wonder!
This is where Tatabánya ends and the limestone mountains of Gerecse begin.
Tatabánya is a typical mining and industrial town, which once flourished, but then coal mining ceased and with it the industry declined. But the surrounding area is very beautiful, full of hiking trails.
We drove up a winding road to our destination and stopped in a car park not far from the famous Turul statue.
The turul is the sacred bird of the Hungarians, originally a beautiful and graceful falcon. I insist on it. But this big statue of Turul is clearly a vulture, and this symbol is more typical of the Habsburgs. And from the very beginning, the Habsburg rulers and their predecessors wanted to destroy the Hungarians. Well, that's how to falsify our sacred symbols! What can I say, I abhor this statue!
Turul statue, Tatabánya
The view is quite nice from here, though.
A path leads down towards the cave. Being Saturday morning, it was full of tourists.
The cave is now open to the public, but the influx of tourists is so great that it is time to regulate it, because the place, like all caves, is protected. If it were up to me, I would charge admission on at least Saturdays and Sundays and limit the number of tourists there at any one time. The proceeds should be used to preserve nature. And I would never let filmmakers in again! Why? I'll explain below.
Narrow entrance of the Szelim cave. Only one person can fit in here at a time!
You arrive in a huge, sloping room with a nice view of the rock layers. The cave itself is monumental, 45 meters long and 14 meters high, so it's big enough to fit even a shopping mall.
The cave was formed hydrothermally, by warm water.
Human traces, bones and fossils dating back 70-80 thousand years have been found here. Many times over the millennia, it has provided shelter and dry space for people. And it was certainly a cult place too.
The cave is also popular with filmmakers, who have filmed several movies here.
Some scenes from the fantasy film Eragon were filmed here in 2005, where the filmmakers have painted the cave walls black, damaged the path and left tons of rubbish, causing huge damage. The paint could only be removed by a very expensive process! That was the first time I heard about the cave, and I was very angry and desperate because of people's greed, selfishness and stupidity.
The scales are most visible here. People are like ants. In some places the ceilings have collapsed, and there are huge holes upwards that let in the sunlight. The stone layers form ledges wide enough for a person to fit on.
Ledges and terraces. It could even be a theatre auditorium.
Here you can see me in my skirt, hunched over, making my way up to the mouth of the cave.
Light finds its way everywhere.
The rock has worn away under the soles of many shoes, and many people have carved their names on it for having been here. Luckily, my shoes had a special, grippy sole.
Holes everywhere. How powerful must have been the hot water rising from the depths. In the Carpathian Basin, almost anywhere you drill, warm water rises up because the earth's crust is thinnest here.
The M1 highway from above
From the mouth of the cave, a narrow path continues to the left, where it is quicker to reach the Turul statue without a detour.
A much smaller cave
Finally, here is another interesting article about the legendary history of the cave.
It is recommended to translate with DeepL Translator to your language:
https://femina.hu/utazas/szelim-barlang/