Karaca Mağarası


Useful Information

Location: Cebeli Village, 17 km from Gümüshane. East Black Sea region, 100 km from the sea. From Gümüshane follow road to Trabzon for 12 km, the turn off on 4 km road to the cave.
(40.544105, 39.402824)
Open:  
Fee:  
Classification: SpeleologyKarst cave
Light: LightIncandescent Electric Light System
Dimension: L=150 m, H=18 m, Ar=1,500 m², A=1,550 m asl. T=12-17 °C, H=70%.
Guided tours: L=105 m.
Photography:  
Accessibility:  
Bibliography: Dr Ali Uzun (1994): Karaca Magarasi [Karoca Caves], 20pp, glossy publication with full colour on all pages, survey, location map, bilingual Turkish/English.
Address: Karaca Mağarası, Cebeli Köyü Yolu, 29800 Cebeli, Torul, Gümüşhane, Tel: +90-456-626-5070.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1983-1990 exploration by Şükrü Eroz.
1996 opened to the public.

Description

photography
Karaca Mağarası, Turkey. Public Domain.
photography
Karaca Mağarası, Turkey. Public Domain.

Karaca Mağarası (Roe Cave) is known since ancient times, the entrance area was used as a natural shelter by ancient man. The area around the cave consists of 1000 m thick andesitic and basaltic lavas, tufas and agglomerates. In between this volcanic rocks lie some small patches of sedimentary rocks of limestone and marl. The cave is located in such a patch of marble, which is heavily fractured.

Karaca cave has abundant speleothems, and the most impressive sight are numerous rimstone pools. Getting bigger and more beautiful towards the end of the cave they are up to 1 m deep. The pools are often filled with dripping water, but there is no cave river any more. The tour follows the horizontal main passage of the cave through four chambers. Two of the chambers are divided by such an amount of speleothems, that most people would count six chambers. The passage is rather big, starting at about 2 m at the entrance it becomes higher and the average height is 18 m.