Adamkó Péter - Dénes György - Leél-Őssy Szabolcs: The Caves of Buda - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1992)

The fissures which are mostly 1 to 3 m wide but frequently several tens of meters long and sometimes extend upwards 10 to 20 m, usually form parallel systems.

The so-called hydrothermal cauldrons or niches, the hemispherical recesses in the roof and sidewalls, are characteristic of every cave of Buda. Some of these are not larger than a roll while others form small chambers of nearly 10 m in diameter.

Abrupt changes in size are also typical of the caves of Buda. Chambers 20 to 50 m in size are quite commonly connected by tight passages. In the developed caves the visitor hardly notices this, because the narrows have been widened for more comfortable access. Every cave of Buda has chambers of various size, such as the Theatre Hall and the Feather Chamber of the Pál-völgyi Cave, the Bocskai Chamber of the Ferenc- hegyi Cave, the Theatre Hall, the Great Chamber and the Geographer’s Chamber of the Mátyás-hegyi Cave and the Kinizsi Station, Airport, Castle Chamber and the Sándor Láng Chamber of the József-hegyi Cave.

The most spectacular sights in all of Buda’s caves are the characteristic dissolution forms and the beautiful minerals precipitated from the thermal water. In some places the walls are so densely covered by minerals that they are justly called “crystal cave” (e.g. the József-hegyi Cave). In the Szemlő-hegyi Cave and the Ferenc-hegyi Cave, the sidewalls are covered everywhere by glittering botryoidal pisolites, popularly known as “peastones”, which precipitated from the thermal water. Such an abundance of mineral formations, bringing to mind bunches of grapes or cauliflowers, is almost unparalleled among all the caves of the world.

Gypsum crystals also occur in most of Buda’s caves. Dripstone formations, however modest in size, are most notable in the Pál-völgyi, Mátyás hegyi Cave and József- hegyi Cave. The limestone walls of many caves (e.g. the Pál-völgyi, Mátyás-hegyi Cave and József-hegyi Cave) contain beautiful fossils: clam shells, sea urchins and nummulites (relatively large, single-celled animals). In the developed caves the beauty of these sights is often enhanced by suitably placed spotlights.

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