Keloğlan Mağarası

Keloğlan Cave - Kelaoğl Cave - Dodurgalar Mağarası - Dodurgalar Cave

Useful Information

Location:	6 km from Bademli, 3 km from Dodurgalar, inside Mount Mali, Acıpayam District. Denizli Province, Antalya Denizli Highway D585 (E67), between Acipayam and Kumafsari turn off towards Bademli. After 1.7 km turn left onto road along irrigation canal, after 2.5 km turn left again onto steep road to the cave. Signposted from the E87 Denizli-Antalya road. (37.387617, 29.499789)
Open:	All year daily 8:30-19. [2019]
Fee:	Adults TRL 3. [2019]
Classification:	Karst cave Jurassic and Cretaceous limestones
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System Coloured Light
Dimension:	A=1,110 m asl.
Guided tours:	L=145 m.
Photography:	Not allowed
Accessibility:	Not wheelchair accessible, many stairs
Bibliography:	Said Dağdaş, Muhammed Ay, Ayşenur Dağdaş (2005): Denizli–Acıpayam - Dodurgalar Kasabası ve Yakın Çevresinin Turizm Potansiyeli (Keloğlan Mağarası Örneği) (Tourism Potential of Denizli – Acıpayam - Dodurgalar Town and its Surroundings), Ulusal Mağara Günleri Sempozyumu, 24-26 Haziran 2005 Beyşehir, s. 255-273, 310 s. MTA (1998): Dodurgalar Mağarası Uygulama Projesi Raporu.
Address:	Kelaoğl Cave / Abeltaş Acıpayam Council Inc., Dodurgalar Mah. Banraz Mevkii, 20800 Acıpayam/Denizli, Tel: +90-530-268-48-66.
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

1990	cave explored by the Maden Tetkik Arama (MTA) and development as a show cave suggested.
2003	3 km long road to the cave built, cave developed, opened to the public.
2005	cave featured by a local private TV station, number of visitors increases.
2013	troglybitic blind spider discovered in the cave.

Description

When we first heard about this cave, we actually did not know if Keloğlan Mağarası was just a fake. First there is (until today [2019])no official homepage, the Wikipedia page was marked with a note that it does not comply to the Wikipedia standards. And finally google translated the name Keloğlan Mağarası with Stupid Cave. But the number of pictures and even YouTube videos was overwhelming, so we decided to believe this cave really existed.

Keloğlan Mağarası is located inside a limestone mountain ridge named Mt. Mali or Mt. Mally and offers a great view. This limestone is intensively karstified and contains numerous caves. Many of them were known to local sheperds, which used the mountain to graze their animals. The cave was first explored by the Maden Tetkik Arama (MTA), the government agency for mineral research and exploration. It was then decided to develop this cave as a show cave. The cave is sometimes called Dodurgalar Mağarası after the nearby village Dodurgalar.

The Kelogan Cave is rich in speleothems. The fossil passage which was developed for the show cave is rather dry. The lower part of the cave has a cave river which feeds a spring below the cave entrance.

In 2012 the cave was examined by speleobiologists from the Universitat de Barcelona, the University of Erzincan, and Anadolu University. They discovered a new species of cave spider they named Typhlonesticus gocmeni in honour of Bayram Göçmen of the University of Ege, a distinguished Turkish biologist. The spider is about 3 cm long and yellowish or white, females are typically larger than males.