Dalwigk Cave
The Dalwigker Höhle is a karst cave not developed for tourists northeast of Dorfitter , a district of the municipality of Vöhl in the north Hessian district of Waldeck-Frankenberg .
Geographical location
The cave is located in the southern part of the Dalwigker Holz , about 800 m east of Dorfitter and just as far northwest of Obernburg , on the steep southern slope within the forest area north over the Kuhbach , which describes a short loop to the east here , which further south between Dorfitter and Thalitter in the Itter flows . Like the forest, it is named after the village of Dalwigk , which was destroyed in 1624 .
In the Kuhbachtal, the route of the Lower Edertalbahn, which was opened in 1900, closed in 1991 and reactivated in 2015 (also known as the National Park Railway since 2015), runs between Frankenberg and Korbach .
The cave
The naturally formed karst cave has a length of 132 meters and is the second largest accessible cave in North Hesse. It was opened up through a former mine tunnel that opened out in the Kuhbach Valley , which was built in 1916 during the search for copper ore , but was abandoned after about 300 m of advance due to unsuccessfulness. The cave can only be reached via this search tunnel. After a distance of about 100 m, the tunnel cuts into the western part of the cave; it is only about one meter wide and 1.20 m high, so that access is very difficult.
Where the tunnel reaches the cave, it forms a high vault, on the walls of which lime-dissolving water has created striking "flowing" structures. At the end of the vault, another, as yet unexplored, very narrow sinus opens up, presumably part of an extensive, subterranean stream system. A slight breeze suggests that this continuation of the cave ends in crevices somewhere on the surface of the earth. The eastern, much longer section of the cave consists of a sometimes very narrow tunnel system.
natural reserve
The cave is located in the Fauna-Flora-Habitat area 4719-303 "Dalwigker Holz und Gebranntes Holz bei Korbach" and is protected according to the European Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive . Numerous animal species adapted to cave life in the darkness live in it, and it is one of the regionally important winter quarters for bat species .
Footnotes
Web links
- Norbert Panek: A touch of adventure - crawling through the largest karst cave in Waldeck-Frankenberg (Geopark Waldeck-Frankenberg | Earth stories, part 10)
- Geo-touristic potential and development proposals in the Geopark region "Korbach-Ittertal"
Coordinates: 51 ° 14 ′ 20.4 " N , 8 ° 54 ′ 6.8" E