The Dersios sinkhole (Greek: Σπηλαιοκαταβόθρα "Ο Δέρσιος" ''Spilaiokatavothra "O Dhersios"'') is a
sinkhole in
Arcadia,
Greece.
The sinkhole, which has a depth of , has been known since antiquity and is located towards the north end of the
plateau of
Palaiochora at a height of 750 m above sea level on mount
Parnon. It is about 45 minutes on unsurfaced road from the nearest town of
Tyros in the
Kynouria region of Arcadia. The sinkhole was first explored in August 1974 to a depth of by a French team (in collaboration with the Hellenic Speleological Society). Since 2003, SELAS caving club in Greece has been exploring the
cave, doubling the depth and more than tripling the length of the sinkhole. The new discoveries were made in 2003 by
cave diving
Cave-diving is underwater diving in water-filled caves. It may be done as an extreme sport, a way of exploring flooded caves for scientific investigation, or for the search for and recovery of divers or, as in the 2018 Thai cave rescue, other ...
the first
sump and emptying it by
siphon
A siphon (from grc, σίφων, síphōn, "pipe, tube", also spelled nonetymologically syphon) is any of a wide variety of devices that involve the flow of liquids through tubes. In a narrower sense, the word refers particularly to a tube in a ...
ing the water and in 2005 by emptying sumps in side passages of the sinkhole.
Landforms of Arcadia, Peloponnese
Caves of Greece
Wild caves
Sinkholes of Europe
Landforms of Greece
Landforms of Peloponnese (region)
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