What I did at the 2nd BSRC - VII - Friday

Friday 20 June - Alistrati day

On Friday we were to be guided through the Alistrati cave and other sights of the area.

When we arrived at Alistrati, the management informed us that we would not be allowed to take photographs inside the cave. It seems they did not want anyone to be able to see how beautiful the cave really is. That would result in a totally counterproductive influx of visitors, doh!

Then when I think about it, perhaps the ban on photographs was to avoid us showing the world the many instances of poor workmanship which resulted from the attempt to open the cave to tourists. Bad workmanship like the many meters of electric cables visibly running through the cave, or like the complete lack of effort to hide from the eyes of the visitors the large and ugly electric panels which seem to sprout up like monstrous electro-mushrooms every ten yards, or like the use of warm lighting which cave algae just love, or like the tons of soil brought into the cave from outside to make level walkways (and that's not even taking into account the cement used), or like the uprooting of the large colony of bats from the largest chamber in the cave where the guano they had produced still forms a stop on the tour. We did not see the world famous elevator, so whether I had my camera with me or not, I would not have been able to photograph it. I should say a word about our guide: I was very dissatisfied by her lack of general speleo-knowledge. Parrot-fashion learning and repetition of your tour speech is not sufficient to be a proper guide. What benefit is it to repeat dumbly what information we have learned about beetles discovered by Prof. Beron when we don't know the basics about speleobiology or to talk with a confident voice about the eccentrites when we don’t have a clue about the basics of speleogenesis. I left some comments in the visitors book. And signed my name to them.



No photos, no videos

After this disappointment in the show-cave (which was only marginally mitigated by having seen the eccentrites), we set off on our walk down the canoyon of Alistrati, heading for the cave of Megalo Hani and then the Cave of Orpheus, with the very polite and knowledgeable Kostas as our guide.

The whole of the Aggitis river was once underground. When the roof fell in, the canyon was formed and the river was exposed to the elements, but in many places along the banks you can still see hollows and small caves in the rock and occasionally stalagmites sticking up. The Megalo Hani cave is a refuge cave of about 100 sqm area and some small chambers leading off the main area. In the past, from time to time, the locals presumably used it as a refuge - the cave offers protection from the elements and from the eyes of enemies.

From the Neolithic onwards, either as a thank-you to the spirits of the cave which had allowed the visitors to rest in safety, or as messages to other users of the cave, various designs were carved into the rocks in the cave. The designs can be categorized into three groups: zoomorphic, anthropomorphic and geometric. Many different types of animals can be distinguished, in the most part animals of the hunt.

The designs are scratched in quite a shallow way into the rock - only one or two mm deep. To more easily see the designs, it helps if one spills some water onto the rocks.


The Megalo Hani carvings during our visit

A tetrapod scratched into the rock

After Megalo Hani, we went on to the Cave of Orpheus, where we met Nikos from Maara. Nikos had been involved in the archaeological study of the cave and guided us round the cave ad the trenches. The cave has a large area with archaeological finds, mainly from the Neolithic period and other parts with very beautiful speleothems. As the site is still being excavated, there is a locked gate on the entrance which the ephorate had opened for us specially for the camp.


General view of one of the chambers in the Cave of Orpheus




Brief video of our excursion.

What I did at the 2nd BSRC - VI - Thursday

Thursday 19 June - excursion to Maroneia

The planning for Thursday had the largest road trip of the week - to the cave of Maroneia in the Rhodope Prefecture. To get there we passed Philippi with its early Christian basilicas, Kavala, Xanthi, Komotini and we finally approached the cave of Maroneia, just outside the village of the same name. There, we were met by a team from the ministry of culture - ephorate of Palaeontology and Speleology for Northern Greece, together with some representatives of the local government. Markos Vaxevanopoulos of Cheiron Caving Club in Volos was our guide at the cave and explained to us what we would see inside. The cave is situated in nummulitic limestone (that is to say, limestone made up of small snailshells from another time). It has two main routes inside - one of which has archaeological interest and the other geological and biospeleological interest. The cave is home to more than 15 endemic species (not found anywhere else in the world) of which the two are bats. The large number of endemics is probably the result of the high levels of carbon dioxide and nitrogen created by the action of bacteria and other microorganisms on the bat guano, which literally forms large piles in the chambers of the cave.

The archaeological finds are also rather significant because they date to the early Neolithic and could therefore throw some light on the whole spread of agriculture / animal husbandry question. We were fortunate enough to be guided round the dig by Anna, one of the archaeologists from the ephorate who is working the site and is on hand every day. The dig is protected, and has been for some years, by a locked door which permits the bats to enter and exit. Without the help pf the ephorate, our visit would not have happened, and all of us who were there are very grateful to the team from the ministry who made the long drive up from Thessaloniki to receive us.

As an epilogue, I have to mention that the municipal authorities wish to give the cave over for tourist development, believeing in this way that they will bring income to the region and thereby improve the lot of the inhabitants. Fortunately, the ephorate is maintaining a very cautious stance because the destruction of this specific cave (it will surely be destroyed by even the most gentle of interventions for development) will constitute a huge crime against the country's natural heritage. The tension I felt this day between the representatives of local self government and the ephorate very clearly shows that there is still a great deal of work to be done by speleological groups to inform local authorities about the significance of the caves in their jurisdiction.

After many hours inside the cave, we went for a swim, ate at a nearby beach tavern and started the long journey for home.


Fossilised snail shell which, on account of its similarity to a small roman coin (nummulus), gives its name to a type of Eocene limestone

One of the chambers with archaeological finds in Maroneia - you can clearly see the wire grid used by the archaeologists to identify the findspot of each find

One of the bat hibernacula in Maroneia. You can also make out the tapes indicating the correct route through the cave to avoid damaging the fragile ecosystem



Brief video of our visit.