World Heritage Identification Number: 725
World Heritage since: 1995
Category: Natural Heritage
WHE Type: Natural Landscapes & Geographic Features
Transboundary Heritage: Yes
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: Hungary, Slovakia
Continent: Europe
UNESCO World Region: Europe and North America
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Exploring the Geological Wonders of the Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst
The Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst, a unique and captivating UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a mesmerizing collection of over 1000 karst caves sprawled across a vast area of approximately 55,800 hectares along the shared borders of Hungary and Slovakia. This extraordinary site offers a glimpse into the rich tapestry of geological history spanning tens of millions of years.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
The variety of formations and the fact that they are concentrated in a restricted area means that the 712 caves currently identified make up a typical temperate-zone karstic system. Because they display an extremely rare combination of tropical and glacial climatic effects, they make it possible to study geological history over tens of millions of years.
UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site
Criteria (viii): The property Caves of Aggtelek and Slovak Karst, while typical of many karst localities in Europe, is distinctive in its great number (with 712 recorded at time of inscription) of different types of caves found in a concentrated area. Geological processes causing karst features to be buried by sediment and then later reactivated or exhumed provide evidence pertaining to the geologic history of the last tens of millions of years. Relicts of pre-Pleistocene karst (i.e. more than about 2 million years old) are very distinct in the area, and many of them show evidence for sub-tropical and tropical climate forms. These include rounded hills that are relicts of tropical karst later modified by Pleistocene periglacial weathering. This suite of paleokarst features, showing a combination of both tropical and glacial climates, is very unusual and is probably better documented in the Slovak Karst than anywhere else in the world.
Encyclopedia Record: Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst
The Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst are a series of over 1000 karst caves spread out over a total area of 55,800 ha along the border of Hungary and Slovakia. With an exceptional diversity of karst structures and complex cave systems developing from both temperate and tropical processes, the caves and surrounding areas were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.Additional Site Details
Area: 56,650.57 hectares
Number of Components: 7
Coordinates: 48.47573 , 20.48687
IUCN World Heritage Outlook
The 2025 Conservation Outlook on Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst reports the following assessment:
Source: International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) · View assessment
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