Gombasek Cave or Gombasecká jaskyňa (in Slovak) and Gombaszögi-barlang (in Hungarian) is a stalactite and stalagmite cave in the Slovak Karst, Slovakia. It is named after the settlement of Gombasek, which belongs to the village of Slavec. It is located in the Slovak Karst National Park, in the Slaná river valley, approximately 15 km south of Rožňava. The cave was discovered on 21 November 1951 by volunteer cavers. In 1955, 300 m out of 1,525 m were opened to the public. Currently, the route for visitors is 530 m long and takes about 30 minutes.
The cave is also used for "speleotherapy" as a sanatorium, focused on airway diseases. Since 1995, the Gombasek Cave is included in the UNESCO World Heritage list as a part of Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst.
Famous quotes containing the word cave:
“Do you know how poetry started? I always think that it started when a cave boy came running back to the cave, through the tall grass, shouting as he ran, “Wolf, wolf,” and there was no wolf. His baboon-like parents, great sticklers for the truth, gave him a hiding, no doubt, but poetry had been born—the tall story had been born in the tall grass.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)