Beremend Crystal Cave, Protected cave in Beremend, Hungary.
Beremend Crystal Cave opens in the Szőlő-hegy quarry of the Duna-Dráva Cement works at Beremend. Its passages, shafts and chambers run through Cretaceous limestone on several levels, with spherical niches and a 10 m² lake in the Tavas-terem. Air temperature is 15–19 °C, and 19.5 °C karst water still stands in the lower passages.
The cave was discovered in 1984 during limestone extraction work and received protected status in 1988. Since then it has been managed as a natural monument under government protection.
The cave yielded Hungary's most complete saber-toothed cat remains, identified as Epimachairodus latidens. Dénes Jánossy and György Topál of the Natural History Museum studied the finds, which also included lower Pleistocene shrew and vole remains. The site produced the first substantial bat fauna and relatively intact large-mammal bones from the Villány Hills, plus bones of a wild sheep and an antelope species previously unknown in Hungary.
A visit requires advance permission from the National Park administration. Wear clean clothes and rely on the provided electric lighting to safely navigate the passages.
The cave's rarest mineral is huntit, a very soft white substance found on top of the pea-stone formations; it was first described in Hungary, from Dorog. Underwater, thick spherical calcite coatings resemble fleecy clouds. The cave also yielded the most complete saber-toothed cat remains in Hungary, identified as Epimachairodus latidens.
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