Table Of ContentCave and Karst Systems of the World
Ali Yamaç
Eric Gilli
Ezgi Tok
Koray Törk
Caves and Karst
of Turkey—Vol. 1
History, Archaeology and Caves
Cave and Karst Systems of the World
Series Editor
James W. LaMoreaux, P.E.LaMoreaux and Associates, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11987
Ali Yamaç (cid:129) Eric Gilli (cid:129)
Ezgi Tok (cid:129) Koray Törk
Caves and Karst
—
of Turkey Vol. 1
History, Archaeology and Caves
123
Ali Yamaç EricGilli
OBRUKCave Research Group Department ofGeography
Istanbul,Turkey University Paris 8
Paris, France
EzgiTok
Eurasia Institute of EarthSciences Koray Törk
Istanbul TechnicalUniversity Geological Research
Istanbul,Turkey Mineral Research andExploration of Turkey
Ankara,Turkey
ISSN 2364-4591 ISSN 2364-4605 (electronic)
Cave andKarstSystems of theWorld
ISBN978-3-030-65500-6 ISBN978-3-030-65501-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65501-3
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Preface
For the first—almost—three decades of Turkish caving, there were only two speleology
organizations in Turkey: Cave Research Association (MAD) established by Dr. Temuçin
Aygenin1964andBoğaziçiUniversitySpeleologicalSociety(BÜMAK)establishedin1973.
On the other hand, during those dates, speleology was accepted as both a sport and a
disciplineallaroundtheworldforalongtime.Apartfromtheworksandstudiescarriedoutin
other countries, even in Turkey, there were numerous speleological and biospeleological
researches carried out by foreigners years ago or ongoing on those dates. Various foreign
explorersandacademicianshadalreadypublishednumerousarticlesandevenbooksaboutthe
caves of Turkey.
After all these years, the number of speleological associations in Turkey has reached 18
today and numerous different associations, including the governmental organizations, are
actively caving. In the preface of proceedings of the 1. National Speleology Symposium in
1990, Prof. Mustafa Aktar had stated that “Speleology, by extending to numerous areas such
as sport, art, and tourism during its development process which started with science has
achieved a cultural structure. And in Turkey, the number of people involved in this area as a
profession or as an amateur interest has increased and organizations have emerged.”
Indeed, with the efforts of all these new associations and organizations, over the years,
hundredsofnewcaveshavebeenexploredandresearched.Notonlywiththenewlyexplored
caves,butalsowiththenewbranchesofthepreviouslyexploredcaves,thelengthsanddepths
ofthecavesconstantlychangeeachyear.Evenduringthewritingphaseofthisbook,wehave
witnessed the change of the list of the longest and deepest caves.
Independentfromalltheseexplorationsperformed,numerousdifferentscientificstudiesare
being carried outin recent years related tothe caves of Turkey. The worksand studies inthe
areasofcavebiologyandpaleoclimatology,whichhavegainedahugeaccelerationespecially
in recent years, are a sign of the bright and promising future of the scientific cave studies in
Turkey. Various researches are being carried out in recent years regarding these issues, and
numerousarticleshavebeenpublished.Likewise,intheareaofcavearchaeology,ratherthan
old-style rough researches, precise scientific works and studies are being carried out. Due to
therapidlydeveloping newtechniques,notonlyinthearchaeologicalexcavations butalsoin
the dating and DNA tests, striking results are being achieved.
This book explains the geology, hydrogeology, and exploration stories of 45 caves of
Turkey, chosen among the thousands of caves explored and researched until now. Addi-
tionally, the findings of 20 caves chosen among 90 archaeological caves researched or
excavated until now are explained in a separate chapter.
However,asexplainedcomprehensivelyinChap.4ofthisbook,thekarsticareaofTurkey
is larger than the total area of numerous countries and for a country with such a large karstic
area, neither the number of the speleological associations existing today, nor the number of
explorations and scientific works carried out is sufficient. This country, which has tens of
thousandsofunexploredcaves,requiresasignificantaccelerationintheareasofbothscientific
v
vi Preface
and sportive cave explorations and cave archaeology and more importantly needs academic
organizations to carry out karst and cave works and studies.
Wewishthatthisbookenlightenstheimmensityoftheworkrequiredtobecarriedoutand
hope that it will form a basis for the new researches.
Istanbul, Turkey Ali Yamaç
Eric Gilli
Ezgi Tok
Koray Törk
AcknowledgementsDuringthepreparationofthisbook,wehadusedhundredsofreferencesbut,withoutthe
colossalworkofBülentErdem,“BibliographyofSpeleologyinTurkey”andhisdedicatedefforts,itwouldbe
impossibletobeinformedandtoreachallthesesources.Wewouldliketoexpressoursinceregratitudetohim
forhisenormoushelp.
Contents
1 Speleology in Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Precursors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Collaboration with European Associations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Turkish Caving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2 Cave Archaeology in Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Examples of Cave Excavations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2.1 Beldibi Rock Shelter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2.2 Belbaşı Rock Shelter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2.3 Çarkini Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2.4 Direkli Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2.5 Dülük Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2.6 Gurma Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2.7 İkiağızlı Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2.8 İncili Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2.9 İnönü Caves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2.10 Kanal Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.11 Kapalıin Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.12 Keçiler Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2.13 Kızılin Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2.14 Kurbanağa Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.2.15 Merdivenli Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.2.16 Tekeköy Caves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.2.17 Tıkalı Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.2.18 Wadi el-Hammam Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.2.19 Yağlak Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.2.20 Yassıkaya Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3 Natural Sciences in the Caves of Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.2 The Research with Perspectives of Cave Geomorphology, Geology,
and Hydrology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.3 The Research with Perspective of Speleothem Geochemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.4 The Research with Perspective of Cave Microbiology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.5 The Research with Perspective of Cave Fauna. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4 45 Interesting Caves of Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.2 Interesting Caves of Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
vii
viii Contents
4.2.1 Altınbeşik Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.2.2 Ayvaini Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.2.3 Balatini Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2.4 Bayındır Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.2.5 Birkleyn Caves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.2.6 Bulak Mencilis Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2.7 Cennet–Cehennem Caves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.2.8 Cumayanı Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.2.9 Çem Sinkhole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.2.10 Çukurpınar Sinkhole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.2.11 Damlataş Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.2.12 Dim Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.2.13 Dodurgalar Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.2.14 Döngel Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.2.15 Dupnisa Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.2.16 Gökgöl Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.2.17 İkigöz Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.2.18 Ilgarini Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.2.19 İnsuyu Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.2.20 Kadıini Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.2.21 Karain Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.2.22 Keş Sinkhole. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.2.23 Kırkgözler Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.2.24 Kızılelma Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.2.25 Kızılin Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.2.26 Kocain Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.2.27 Körükini and Suluin Caves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.2.28 Kuzgun Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4.2.29 Morca Sinkhole. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.2.30 Oylat Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.2.31 Öküzini Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.2.32 Peynirlikönü Sinkhole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.2.33 Pınargözü Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.2.34 Sarpunalınca Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4.2.35 Sıtmasuyu Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.2.36 Sofular Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.2.37 Suluin Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4.2.38 Susuz Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.2.39 Tilkiler Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.2.40 Tınaztepe Caves and Sinkhole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
4.2.41 Üçağızlı Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
4.2.42 Yarımburgaz Cave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.2.43 Yaylacık–İnilti Pazarı Cave System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
4.2.44 Yazören Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.2.45 Zindan Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Index ... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 105
About the Authors
Ali Yamaç is a Turkish speleologist. He was born in 1957 and caving since 1976. He had
explored and surveyed hundreds of caves during those years, of which some are among the
deepestandlongestcavesofTurkey.HewasPresidentofSpeleologicalFederationofTurkey
during 2007–2009 and President during the establishment of three different caving organi-
zations. He was the leader of the team who had prepared the Cave Inventory of Turkey. In
addition to his natural cave explorations, as a part of his artificial cave projects, he had
explored and surveyed numerous underground cities and rock dwelled settlements around
different regions of Turkey.
Eric Gilli is a French karstologist. He was born in 1957 and studied geology and physical
geographyinNice,Paris,andAix-Marseille.FormerlyaconsultantinNice,hehasbeensince
2001ProfessorattheGeographyDepartmentattheUniversityofParis8.Hismaintopicsare
hydrogeology, karst, caves, groundwater, palaeo-environments, earthquakes, tsunamis, and
naturaldisasters.Hehasalsobeeninvolvedinshipwreckexplorationsandtroglodytestudies.
His international studies have taken him to many parts of world.
Ezgi Tok is a Turkish speleologist. Her research is focused on microbial life in cave envi-
ronments. She explored several caves all over Turkey to reveal the microbial diversity, the
ecosystem functioning of microbial populations, and their relation with the psychochemical
conditions within the cave ecosystem. She had been caving since 2007 and joined several
national and international speleological expeditions in Turkey and foreign. She also had
surveyedandmappedseveralcavesofTurkey;amongthemİnsuyuCave,whichisthelongest,
and Kocain Cave, which is the largest chamber of Turkey, are especially important.
Koray Törk isa speleologist and karst hydrogeologistworking inmost ofthe karst areas of
Turkey. He jointed to Cave Research Association (MAD) as a caver and then have been
MemberofMineralResearchandExplorationofTurkey(MTA)asaspeleologist.Hehasbeen
working predominantly on karst base natural hazards (sinkhole collapse/obruk) and cave
protection for more than ten years.
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