Bättlerloch

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Entrance part of the tartare

The Bättlerloch is an approximately one kilometer long, water-bearing karst cave in the canton of Baselland , Switzerland , in the area of ​​the municipality of Brislach . The horizontal cave is at 390  m above sea level. M. It is the source of the Schällbach, which drains into the Birs . The Kaltbrunnental- Brislachallmet karst educational trail also stops here.

Entering the cave is only possible with appropriate equipment and experience and only in dry weather.

Surname

One interpretation of the cave name assumes that beggars, vagabonds or travelers used the place as a resting place. According to the other interpretation, the meerkats ( goblins ) went swimming here after their work. Such legends about the meerkats are widespread in northwestern Switzerland , every second municipality in the Upper Basel area and in the Fricktal has a meerkat or Erdweiblein cave.

Access

The easiest way to get to the Bättlerloch is via Zwingen on the Allmendweg. From the narrow parking lot ( NS: 47.436003, EW: 7.545378 ), the starting point for the Kaltbrunnental-Brislachallmet karst educational trail, the cave entrances can be easily reached on foot in around 20 minutes.

description

Narrow point in Tartaros

At 1,020 m, the Bättlerloch is the longest cave in the canton of Baselland. Despite its considerable length, it has a maximum difference in height of only eight meters.

The Bättlerloch has two low and narrow entrances. One passes through the source part , the cavity of the stream emanates and is impassable at high water (except with diving equipment); the other, the tartaros (Greek: part of the underworld ), leads to the spacious main corridor (east corridor). The tartaros is a consistently wet, narrow and in places barely passable layer joint passage . The water here is cloudy and partly stale. Once you have reached the main passage, you can comfortably follow the cave a few 100 m upstream, even if you are often crouched down. The last 180 m of the main corridor remain inaccessible due to a siphon that is hardly submersible . The south corridor and the Sauschluf, both muddy and very narrow crawl spaces, are the only noteworthy branches from the main corridor. The Sauschluf is particularly uncomfortable to navigate due to its loamy water basins.

The feeding of the cave stream remains a mystery. This reacts quickly to precipitation - its water level rises immediately, albeit rarely by more than 20 cm. For safety reasons, you should not drive on the Bättlerloch on days with precipitation.

literature

  • Thomas Bitterli: Caves in the Basel-Laufen region. In: Speleological inventory of Switzerland. Volume III, 1996, pp. 110-116.
  • Jörg and Volker Bäuchle: Karst phenomena around Zwingen. In: Stalactite. 52/1, 2002, p. 15 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Map showing the location of the Bättlerloch .
  2. ^ Website Karstlehrpfad , accessed on August 10, 2016.
  3. ↑ SGH Basel: Swiss Caves With a Length of More Than 1000 Meters , accessed on August 11, 2016.

Coordinates: 47 ° 26 '4.2 "  N , 7 ° 33' 9.5"  E ; CH1903:  608601  /  253,750