The Oylat Caves and Avcılar Caves in Türkiye’s Bursa and Balıkesir showcase essentially the most lovely examples of underground geological formations within the southern Marmara area with their stalactites and stalagmites.
Oylat Cave, situated in Bursa’s Inegöl district, additionally famed for its meatballs, consists of two interconnected flooring fashioned over roughly 3 million years alongside fault strains.
Hanging on the canyon slope, the 720-meter-long (2,362-foot-long) cave, with its horizontal orientation and accomplished fossil formation notably captivates with its 7-to-8-meter-long stalactites and stalagmites.
Hosting practically 300,000 guests yearly, the cave, which usually has a meandering profile, has slender galleries from its entrance to the massive collapse corridor.
Alper Taban, the mayor of Inegöl, chatting with Anadolu Agency (AA) famous that the cave is located within the space the place Oylat Thermal Springs and Oylat Waterfall are additionally situated and contributes considerably to the area’s tourism.
Stating that the cave, with a peak of 93 meters, maintains a temperature of 18 levels Celsius (64.4 levels Fahrenheit) year-round, Taban continued on to say that in line with a rumor, it’s mentioned that the cave is for much longer and will lengthen to Bursa.
“It was discovered with the works carried out by the governor of that period. We especially want visitors to the region to see this place. It’s like a treasure hidden in a forest at an altitude of about 750 meters above sea level. Our Oylat Cave has an increasing visitor traffic every year. We believe that our observation terrace project in the area where the entrance of the cave is located will add value to the region,” he defined.
Sıtkı Milli, the supervisor of Oylat Cave, then again, talked about that the cave, which has 85% humidity, is regularly visited by bronchial asthma and bronchitis sufferers.
Emphasizing his occupation as a decorator, Milli mentioned: “I have never seen such formations; there are layered water pools that have formed spontaneously. We have a route consisting of stairs made of galvanized sheets inside. It is a wonderful place formed by limestone over millions of years.”
A 12-year-old boy, Mehmet Efe Şentürk, who visited the cave together with his household, expressed that he had researched earlier than coming right here.
Şentürk, who famous that he was most fascinated by stalactites and stalagmites, mentioned, “It takes 16 years for 1 centimeter of these formations to occur. It was very surprising to me. There are usually 500 steps in total, both up and down, making a total of a thousand steps. It is 1.5 kilometers (nearly 1 mile), but it didn’t tire me much. To be honest, it was easy.”
Avcılar Cave, fashioned from limestone within the Kızılçukur area of the Edremit district in Balıkesir, was found in 2012 when Mehmet Altay, a resident of the area, reported it to professor Abdullah Soykan, a college member of the Geography Department at Balıkesir University.
Accessible to skilled groups from the necessary tourism vacation spot Altınoluk within the northern Aegean, the cave is 22.5 meters deep and 145 meters lengthy, containing stalactites, stalagmites and dripstone columns.
Soykan, stating that they realized throughout their research 11 years in the past that the cave developed vertically, mentioned that Avcılar Cave is a half-vertical, half-horizontal cave and has reworked right into a fossil cave that has misplaced its exercise within the so-called “vadose zone” (unsaturated zone) because the cave tailored to the rising mountains.
“As the mountains rose, the cave remained high, but it consists of three sections, first vertically, then horizontally and then vertically again. In fact, if the limestone in the area was wider, a much larger cave could have been formed here,” he defined.
Emphasizing the significance of the cave’s location, Soykan defined that the Edremit-Altınoluk hall, dealing with south within the Kaz Mountains, is one among Türkiye’s most necessary tourism locations.
Indicating that Avcılar is the one cave within the area with tourism potential, Soykan mentioned: “It needs to be turned into a tourism spot with landscaping. It is a very special cave with beautiful stalactites, stalagmites, dripstone columns, wall dripstones inside.”
“Gas measurements of this place have also been taken. Harmful gases such as hydrogen sulfide, methane and carbon monoxide are at normal levels. Only the humidity is a bit high compared to the outside,” Soykan added.
He concluded by saying that the temperature contained in the cave is between 13 and 14 levels Celsius year-round.
Source: www.dailysabah.com