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

romantic cave contained several moments of local historical interest. In 1943, this is what he wrote: „Another notable cave is the Szelim-hole at Bánhida. It is gawping at the side of the mountain where the millenary memorial, the Turul is spreading its proud wings. On its history, there are two versions circulating in popular legends. According to the first one, the inhabitants of the region took shelter in the Szelim-hole when the troops of Soliman (Szelim) were approaching, but they were revealed when searching for water. The Turks stuffed the opening of the cave and set fire on them, so all of them died. According to another less well-known version, the wife and child of a constable, from a neighbouring fortress of the Vértes Mts. (maybe, from Vitdny) asked for shelter and water here but the people who were already hiding here turned her off. The woman in despair betrayed them to the Tartars at the Labanc-stream under the mountain but she got killed just the same, and as they could not get inside the cave through the narrow vent of the Farkaslyuk (Wolf hole), they made a big hole on the mountain top, and the disturbed ceiling of the cave fall down and buried the refugees and brought down the walls of the cave at two places. It was also told about the cave that sultan Szelim buried his treasures there and they are guarded by a dragon with poisonous breath. It is a fact, however, that Hubert Kessler, speleologist, found poisonous carbon dioxide gas in the depth of the Szelim-hole during exploration: was it the poisonous breath of the dragon?" The cave emerged to the rank of an archaeological site relatively late, compared to how popular a place it was and how evidently it was a „realprehistoric men's cave". Its archaeological exploration started in 1932, Hubert Kessler, tirelessly urging speleological research, opened the first ditch in the cave. The cave belonged to the demesne of the lord of the region, count Ferenc Esterházy. The results of Kessler induced István Gaál to start regular excavations here. In 1934, the Natural History Research Council supplied the financial conditions for the excavation, which turned far deficient compared to the task. The continuation of the work could only be imagined with a financial background produced by joint efforts. Let us quote here now, when conditions of practising science with no apparent economic use became again difficult both in research and publication, the list of respectable supporters of the work in the Szelim-cave: „ On the basis of the situation and the tangible results achieved so far, the support of the Cultural Administration, later fenő Vida, general director of the Hungarian State Coal Mining Co. and Konrád Rehling, counsellor of mining affairs, moreover Béla Bagossy and Pál Péchy, director of the Bánhida Power Plant, Frigyes Dőry, owner of the Paradicsom37