Martha Cave
The Marthahöhle is a gypsum cave in the nature reserve Gipskarstlandschaft Hainholz near Düna , which cannot be visited. With its corridors over 450 meters long, it is one of the larger caves in the Hainholz area.
location
The cave is located in the nature reserve Gipskarstlandschaft Hainholz, which is a representative part of the gypsum karst landscape of the southern Harz . The typical forms of a karst landscape can be found in a small space, such as sinkholes , sinkholes , streams and a number of caves. Another larger cave in the Hainholz is the Jettenhöhle . The entrance to the cave is at the north-west slope of the Bollerkopf elevation in a wooded and intensely karst landscape.
history
The Marthahöhle is little known and was discovered in 1924 by cave explorer Friedrich Stolberg from Strasbourg with cave explorers from Nordhausen and explored more intensively in 1934. However, she was already known to farmers in the area. Stolberg named the cave after a former friend in Marthahöhle, as no name was passed down. The name Diebshöhle later appeared in the Lower Saxon cave cadastre .
description
The large cave entrance is hidden behind the gatekeeper, a rock tower. From the entrance the ground drops steeply to a cave lake, the water level of which corresponds to that of the sinkhole lake below the edge of the drop. The cave has a walkable length of about 150 meters. The individual interior rooms and corridors are the winter ice hall, the 20 meter wide flat hall, the white vault, the Strötker Schluf, the rubble grotto, the pond walkway, the mud sinter walkway, the high quarry hall and the gloomy hall. Inside are the rooms with lakes, such as the South and North Seas.
The rear of the cave is deeply flooded and because of the water flow it is seldom accessible; usually only every 10 years. The rear area is cordoned off to protect sediment structures in the soft cave clay from damage. Cave explorations could only be carried out in years when the cave was empty of water. The spaces with the North and South Seas were only discovered during dives in 1972.
literature
- Friedrich Stolberg : Marthahöhle and clinker fountain near Düna on the southern Harz , Mitt. Höhlen- u. Karstforsch., 17–26, [5 figs.], Berlin, 1936
- Stephan Kempe, Erich Mattern, Fritz Reinboth, Martin Seeger, Firouz Vladi : The Jettenhöhle near Düna and its surroundings , Abh. Karst and Höhlenkunde A6, 1972
Web links
- Description and photos at karstwanderweg.de
- Photo from the heart with lake
- Photo series with 30 pictures
Coordinates: 51 ° 41 ′ 21.9 ″ N , 10 ° 16 ′ 9.6 ″ E