Viola T. Dobosi: Paleolithic Man in the Által-ér Valley (Tata, 1999)

Tatabánya - Szelim-cave Fig. 16. Szelim-cave The cave is opening in the almost verticai cliff of the Kőhegy, over the town (the former village Bánhida), at the western margin of the Gerecse Mts., at an altitude about 300 m a.s.l., 130 m above the bottom of the Által-ér valley. The limestone constituting the mountain is liable to karstic phenomena. Meteoric water infiltrating the Mesozoic compact limestone will carve, with physical and/or chemical work, carve cavities into the bedrock, solving the carbonate with acidic solution and abrading the cavities with the drifted debris and pebbles. These cavities can be of variable size and form. The smaller ones are in fact at the beginning of a longer development to become great caves in due time. In the Gerecse Mountains one can find a lot of cavities, shafts and caves. The biggest and most famous one is the Szelim-cave. It can be seen from afar. Easily accessible, its imposing rectangular entrance with the memorial of the Turul (a mythical eagle-like bird of the Old Hungarians) is an appealing sight. Elek Fényes wrote about the cave it in 1856: „ Under the rocky mountain crowned with forest there is a large vineyard, facing south on the northern parts of the area, extending to the Alsó-Galla fields as well. In the cliff over the vineyards, the rectangular gate-form entrance of the Szemiluk cave can be seen from the road under the vineyard heading from Tata to Galla and from there, through Bicske to Buda where even today a great number of human bones are found. According to local tradition a lot of countrymen, as the legend says, people from 7 villages sheltered in the cave whom the Turks spotted from the smoke pouring out on the hole at the top, and were drowned here, as the old men of the region still show the traces of fire on the narrow vent. " Miklós Pápa probably draw information from here or the still lingering local tradition when he published his article in Barlangvilág, a standard paper for speleology, tourism and natural history. His article on the 36