Pál-völgyi cave

Today we visited the Pál-völgyi cave. It is located under the Buda hill. We went there by bus and it's took one hour to go there. After arrival we discovered a beautiful natural landscape without any big buildings, only some small houses. It's very strange to see this kind of quiet place just some kilometers from the Budapest downtown.

At the entrance of the cave there is a small restaurant where we bought our tickets and played a ‘table football pending the beginning of the visit.

The visit started by the Lajos Lóczy room. This is the name of the geographer who contributed to exploring this cave in 1989. Inside, the temperature is around 10 C° all year round and the air is very pure, there is no pollution and no dust. The air in this cave can cure some lung diseases

The next room is "The crossing" where the guide explained that 40 millions years ago this territory was under the sea and the animals and shell remains piled up to create a 40 meters deep limestone. 20 millions years ago, mountains started to grow up wich resulted the creation of this cave. Before humans being built thermal baths, thermal water was flooding in this cave and it helped to dig the structure of this cave.

The zoo of stalagmites: In this room we can see some stalagmites witch look like animals: crocodile, scorpions, elephants ... Stalagmites are due to the water which loses its limestone when it flows on the rock.

The tourists gallery: In this part of the cave we can see some shells embedded in the rock. This is a proof that a sea was in this place.

shell embedded

The gallery five: This corridor is the narrowest of the cave, the maximum width is 0.5 meters and its length is 60 meters.

The Bekey gallery: The walls of this gallery are covered by crystals filed by thermal water.

After this gallery we reached the surface by an artificial corridor.

This tour was very interesting and it is very unexpected to see this kind of place nearby a such big city.