THE LEVOČSKÉ VRCHY MOUNTAINS – PSEUDOKARST PARADISE Františka Majerníčková – Gabriela Majerníčková – Peter Imrich
Speleoclub Šariš, speleo.saris@post.sk
Geomorphologically the Levočské vrchy Mountains build the western part of the inner CarpathianBalkan arc. The Mountains are spreading in NW part of eastem Slovakia on the area approximately 714 km2, in altitude from 460 to 1289 m. The Levočské vrchy Mountains is typical massive block mountain chain that is built by Paleogene deposits, numerous forks separated by deep valleys are expanding from this mountain [1]. The Levočské vrchy Mountains is possible to characterize as the typical highlands that is culminating on the Čierná hora in altitude 1289 m. The mountain is some gate to the region of the Spiš and Tatras. The typical sign of the mountain in the area of occurrence of caves is remarkable steeping of landscape and presence of sand soils with forests or veldts. The Levočské vrchy Mountains is the typical area with occurrence of sliding structures. One of such structures is bearer of the biggest pseudokarst cave ever found in Slovakia.
The large part of this area was a military zone. The area is underpeopled and touristically not very often visited, with beautiful nature, emblazoned with legends and secrets. The well-known legend deals with the cave the Moon shaft. The untouched nature offers highland meadows, deep forests, and plenty of mineral springs on the fault boundaries of the Levočské vrchy Mountains. Although the area is not sufficiently explored from the point of view of speleology under the surface the great potential of underground spaces, that is slowly discovering its secrets, is hidden. The great day for the Levočské vrchy Mountains arrived when the Speleoclub Šariš accomplish the spectacular discovery on the southern slopes of the Spišská hill (altitude 1056.5 m). In November 2004 the cave that is unique in Slovakia in size and morphology of underground space was discovered. Exceptionality of this cave consists in the fact that this pseudokarst cave with unusually
Fig. 1. The caves and open cracks of the sliding structure in Spišská
36
