show cave
A show cave—also called tourist cave, public cave, and, in the United States, commercial cave—is a cave which has been made accessible to the public for guided visits.
Definition
A show cave is a cave that has been made accessible to ...
in
Bursa Province
Bursa Province ( tr, ) is a province in Turkey along the Sea of Marmara coast in northwestern Anatolia. It borders Balıkesir to the west, Kütahya to the south, Bilecik and Sakarya to the east, Kocaeli to the northeast and Yalova to the nor ...
, northwestern Turkey.
Location and access
The cave is located south of Hilmiye village and southeast of
İnegöl
İnegöl (known as , ''Angelokomis'' in the Byzantine period) is a city (center of the İnegöl district) in the Bursa Province of Turkey. It has a population of 340,000 (2011 figures). İnegöl is one of the centers of the Turkish furniture indust ...
town in Bursa Province. It is accessible from İnegöl on the state road to
Ankara
Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...
Tavşanlı
Tavşanlı is a town and district of Kütahya Province in the Aegean region of Turkey.
Tavşanlı is a typical Aegean town where a government-owned coal mine company attracted thousands of settlers from surrounding cities and villages which mad ...
route until Gündüzlü village exit, thenafter changing to the provincial road at the junction marked "Oylat Thermal Spring Resort" and passing through Hilmiye village.
Characteristics
Oylat Cave was formed on a significant, east-west oriented
fault line
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
in the marble formation dating back to around 3 Ma. It is situated at the end of the Oylat Creek Canyon in a
terrain
Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin word ...
of the
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58
The cave's main entrance is above the canyon floor, where at this place the canyon walls rise up high. There exist three more entrances high above the cave's main entrance. The cave has two interconnected levels, and has a
meander
A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank ...
ing shape.
Discovered in 2004, the cave has an overall length of with a clearance. The
stalactite
A stalactite (, ; from the Greek 'stalaktos' ('dripping') via
''stalassein'' ('to drip') is a mineral formation that hangs from the ceiling of caves, hot springs, or man-made structures such as bridges and mines. Any material that is soluble an ...
s and
stalagmite
A stalagmite (, ; from the Greek , from , "dropping, trickling")
is a type of rock formation that rises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of material deposited on the floor from ceiling drippings. Stalagmites are typically ...
s in the cave are colorful. It has a rich natural ecosystem, and is inhabitad by
bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...
s,
butterflies
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
,
worm
Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always).
Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wor ...
s and
guano
Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...
bites.
A large chamber is reached following a narrow gallery of width and around height after entry to the first floor cave. The chamber is occupied by dripstone ponds and gravel yards. The cave above is wide and high. It is composed of large blocks, pillars, stalactites and stalagmites as well as gravel, sand and clay layers.
The meteorological conditions inside the cave vary according to the location. Narrow galleries and gateways connecting chambers and floors are somewhat windy. At an outside temperature of and a humidity of 47%, the temperature falls to and the humidity rises to 55% in the cave entrance. In the narrow gallery, the temperature decreases to while the humidity goes up to 78%. Finally in the chamber, the temperature is at its lowest value of and the humidity reaches 90%.
Tourism
Located in a
spa resort
A destination spa or health resort is a resort centered on a spa, such as a mineral spa. Historically, many such spas were developed at the location of natural hot springs or mineral springs; in the era before modern biochemical knowledge and ...
, the cave was opened to tourism in 2006. It is believed that the cave is capable of curing respiratory complaints, such as
asthma
Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, cou ...
and
bronchitis
Bronchitis is inflammation of the bronchi (large and medium-sized airways) in the lungs that causes coughing. Bronchitis usually begins as an infection in the nose, ears, throat, or sinuses. The infection then makes its way down to the bronchi. ...
. The cave is visited by domestic and foreign tourists. While domestic tourists come all around the year, foreign tourists, mostly from
Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
and the
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
, visit the cave during the summer season, between June and October.
Only of the cave is open to the public. Visiting the cave takes about 90 minutes.