Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst

So far, as I remember, I only visited caves in Majorca, Spain

Rákóczi Cave - Aggtelek Karst National Park

This postcard was sent by Rita

Rákóczi Cave is located in the spur of Esztramos Hill which is part of the Szalonna Karst, this is about 20km east of Jósvafo in north eastern Hungary, in the village of Bódvarákó, near the town of Tornaszentandras. Here, iron mining operations opened up dozens of caves and a few years ago this cave was incorporated into the Aggtelek National Park and was renamed Rákóczi Cave.

Rákóczi Cave contains peculiar dissolution pockets, rock pendants and avens ending in spherical niches. This demonstrates that this cave has been dissolved below the karst water table and that warm waters ascending here in the past have also dissolved part of the speleothems. Today, most of the cave is located well above the water table but Rákóczi Cave still has considerable portions underwater. The mineralisation is characteristic of a hydrothermal cave most of the formations are coralloids, resembling grapes or popcorn. Many scalenohedral calcite crystals, some aragonite crystals and moonmilk abound. One broken speleothem shows alternating bands of calcite and aragonite. The cave also contains deep pools of water which are extremely clear with a slightly greenish colour. - in: http://www.showcaves.com/english/hu/showcaves/Rakoczi.html

Ochtinská Aragonite Cave

This postcard arrived from Poland sent by Malgosia

Ochtinská Aragonite Cave (Slovak: Ochtinská aragonitová jaskyňa) is a unique aragonite cave situated in southern Slovakia, near Rožňava. Although only 300 m long, it is famous for its rare aragonite filling.

There are only three aragonite caves discovered in the world so far. In the so-called Milky Way Hall, the main attraction of the cave, white branches and clusters of aragonite shine like stars in the Milky Way. The cave was discovered by Martin Cangár and Jiri Prosek in 1954 and opened to the public in 1972. Along with other caves of the Slovak Karst, it is included in the UNESCO World Heritage list as a component of Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst site. - in: wikipedia