Great labyrinth cave

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Great labyrinth cave

Plan of the cave system by Franz Sieber (1821). The labyrinth patterns are from ancient coins, not from the cave.

Plan of the cave system by Franz Sieber (1821). The labyrinth patterns are from ancient coins, not from the cave.
Location: Kastelli , Crete , Greece
Height : 410  m
Geographic
location: 		35 ° 4 '31 "  N , 24 ° 55' 10"  E Coordinates: 35 ° 4 '31 "  N , 24 ° 55' 10"  E
Great Labyrinth Cave (Greece)
Great labyrinth cave
Geology: limestone
Type: Rock cave
Discovery: in ancient times known
Overall length: 2470 m

The large labyrinth cave ( Greek Σπήλαιο Λαβύρινθος Spíleo Lavýrinthos , “labyrinth cave”; also ο λαβύρινθος, “the labyrinth”) near the south coast of the Greek island of Crete is a largely artificial cave system that may have served as a quarry in ancient times . Many Cretans associate the branched passages of the cave with the mythical " Labyrinth of the Minotaur ". The structure of the cave structure in comparison to the mythological labyrinth contradicts this ; “Labyrinth” seems to be more of a name transferred to the cave.

location

The Labyrinth Cave is located in the municipality of Mires in the Heraklion regional district between the towns of Kastelli , Roufas , Plouti and Ambelouzos . It is situated on 410 meters altitude on the northern edge of the Messara , south of the Psiloritis (Mount Ida). The cave can be reached on an unpaved path that leads from Kastelli about three kilometers to the north, although from the main path towards Roufas after about 1850 meters, a side path to the east has to be taken. The paths are difficult to pass with vehicles.

The total length of the tunnel-like cave passages of the large labyrinth cave , which are less than 0.5 meters to 6 meters high, is around 2500 meters on an accessible area of ​​almost 0.9  hectares . The cave is located about three kilometers northwest of Gortyn , Crete's capital in Roman times . It is believed that the building material of many of the city's buildings, such as the Titus Basilica, and the stone tablets of the Doric “ Great Inscription” of Gortyn came from the cave.

history

On the walls of the large labyrinth cave there are countless inscriptions from visitors from past centuries. The oldest date from the 15th century. From the Florentine traveler Cristoforo Buondelmonti a travel description from the year 1417 is known, which documents his visit to the cave in 1415. The cave is already marked as a "labyrinth" on maps from the 16th and 17th centuries. It seems to have been a famous sight beyond Crete.

Cave plan by Mathieu Dumas (1783)

After an initial attempt at mapping the cave by Buondelmonti, several researchers later made more precise plans, which, however, differed greatly due to measurement inaccuracies. First of all, the plan by the French Mathieu Dumas , who visited the cave in 1783, should be mentioned. He left his name and year on the rock face in the “Trapeza room” (room of the table).

In the book "Travels in various countrys of the East" by William George Browne in 1820 a plan of the "labyrinth" by the British architect and archaeologist Charles Robert Cockerell , which he had drawn up in December 1811, was printed. As a result, copies of Cockerell's map appeared several times, including by Friedrich Justin Bertuch in 1821 , but only an extension by the Austrian Anton Prokesch , who added several corridors and rooms to the plan after his stay in the cave in 1825. The most precise plan of his time was made by the Austrian explorer Franz Wilhelm Sieber , who explored the “labyrinth” in 1817 and mapped the corridors in his hometown of Prague in 1821 . It was published in 1823.

After Arthur Evans discovered the ruins of Knossos in 1878 and uncovered them on March 23, 1900 , who interpreted the palace as the labyrinth of the Minotaur, interest in the labyrinth cave waned . The excavations of Knossos, which lasted until 1935, and other Minoan cities drew more attention than a rock cave with no apparent evidence of historical significance. During the Second World War , the German occupation forces used the cave as an ammunition depot from April or May 1943. For this purpose, some of the interior spaces were built with concrete. When the troops withdrew, large amounts of ammunition and weapons were left behind and some of them were blown up on October 15, 1944, causing the cave to collapse.

After the salvage of some of the remaining ammunition by the Greek army in 1945/46 and an incomplete cleaning of the cave on behalf of the government in the 1950s, an explosion occurred inside the cave on April 11, 1961, killing four locals. Then the army sealed the two entrances with stones and cement. The large labyrinth cave has been accessible to speleologists again since 1981 . In 1981, 1982 and 1985 three explorations were made inside the cave, during which the cave passages were re-mapped. In July 2009, a group from Oxford University examined the cave system. Signs continue to warn against entering the cave because of remaining ammunition remains and areas at risk of collapse.

Others

About 500 meters north of the entrance to the large labyrinth cave is the one to the small labyrinth cave (Mικρή Λαβύρινθος Mikrí Lavýrinthos , "Small Labyrinth"). There is no known connection between the two cave systems. The small labyrinth cave is safe to enter. An approximately one kilometer long, signposted and paved path leads to it, which branches off to the southwest from the road between Plouti and Moroni (municipality of Zaros ). In the immediate vicinity there is another small cave, the "Labyrinth" (Λαβυρινθάκι Lavyrintháki ).

literature

  • Burkhard Traeger: The Cretan Labyrinth . Mitos publishing house, Rethymno 2005, ISBN 960-7857-15-1 .
  • Kaloust Paragamian et al. a .: Visitors' inscriptions in the Labyrinth of Gortys: A. List of inscriptions in the room of Trapeza Fascicle 1 . Hellenic Speleological Archives, 2004. (Languages: English / Greek)
  • Καλούστ Β. Παραγκαμιάν και Αντώνης Σ. Βασιλάκης (Kaloust V. Paragamian and Antonis S. Vasilakis): η Λαβύρινθος της Μεσαράς (The Labyrinth of the Messara) . Ηράκλειο (Heraklion) 2002. (Language: Greek)
  • Aθανάσιος Ξανθόπουλος (Athanasios Xanthopoulos): ο Λαβύρινθος (The Labyrinth) - Εξερευνώντας το άντρο του Μινώταυρου . Εσοπτρον (Esoptron Publishing House), Αθήνα (Athens) 2008. (Language: Greek)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas M. Waldmann: The Cretan Labyrinth Cave. How 2.5 km of corridors suddenly become 4 km of corridors. www.labyrinthos.ch, July 2, 2010, accessed on September 27, 2012 .
  2. ↑ Thomas M. Waldmann: The Cretan Labyrinth Cave - The Labyrinth of the Minotaur
  3. ↑ a b Thomas M. Waldmann: The Cretan Labyrinth Cave - What was the labyrinth cave really?
  4. ↑ Ο Λαβύρινθος της Γόρτυνας (www.kritikoi.gr) ( Memento of the original from November 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kritikoi.gr
  5. ^ Antonis Vasilakis: Gortyn . Vasilis Kouvidis - Vasilis Manouras Editions, Iraklio 2000, ISBN 960-86623-3-8 , p. 110 .
  6. ↑ Thomas M. Waldmann: The Cretan Labyrinth Cave - 24./25. Oct. 2009: Argument for a Doric quarry
  7. ^ Mathieu Dumas: Plan du labyrinthe de Crète ( Memento of April 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ Thomas M. Waldmann: The Cretan Labyrinth Cave - The plans: b) Dumas 1783 (1839)
  9. ^ Charles Robert Cockerell: Travels in various countrys of the East , Edited by Robert Walpole, London 1820, pp. 404/405
  10. ↑ Thomas M. Waldmann: The Cretan Labyrinth Cave - The plans: c) Cockerell 1811 (1820)
  11. ↑ Thomas M. Waldmann: The Cretan Labyrinth Cave - The plans: e) extended copy of Cockerell's plan: Prokesch von Osten 1825 (1836)
  12. ^ Franz Wilhelm Sieber: Journey to the island of Crete in the Greek Archipelagus in 1817 , Verlag Friedrich Fleischer, Leipzig and Sorau 1823, p. 510 ff.
  13. ↑ Ιστορία - Αυτός είναι ο λαβύρινθος (history-dimotikosxoleioportarias.blogspot.com)
  14. ↑ Thomas M. Waldmann: The Cretan Labyrinth Cave - Chapter 12: Summary of the most important results of my research on the Labyrinth Cave
  15. ↑ a b Thomas M. Waldmann: The Cretan Labyrinth Cave - Meaning and History
  16. ↑ Αυτοψια στο λαβυρινθο καστελιου καινουργιου Κρητης - Report, Greek (PDF; 806 kB) / French translation (PDF; 620 kB)
  17. ^ University of Oxford: Labyrinth Lost ( Memento of October 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  18. ↑ Eberhard Fohrer: Crete. Michael Müller Verlag , Erlangen 2009, p. 337, ISBN 978-3-89953-453-5
  19. ^ Antonis Vasilakis: Gortyn . Vasilis Kouvidis - Vasilis Manouras Editions, Iraklio 2000, ISBN 960-86623-3-8 , p. 109 .

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