Taşkuyu Mağarası

Useful Information

Location:	Taşkuyu, 33400 Tarsus/Mersin. From Tarsus E982/O-51 Adana-Erdemil Otoyolu, (36.949358, 34.788215)
Open:	All year daily 9-18. [2023]
Fee:
Classification:	Karst cave
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:	L=470 m, T=19-24 °C, A=214 m asl.
Guided tours:	self guided, L=470 m.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Taşkuyu Mağarası, Taşkuyu, 33400 Tarsus/Mersin, Tel: +90-324-616-25-15. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

2006	cave discovered during road construction.
26-DEC-2014	opened to the public.

Description

Taşkuyu Mağarası was named after the small village Taşkuyu, where it is located. The village belongs to nearby Tarsus.

The cave is a solutional cave and shows numerous rounded forms and hollows which are a result of dissolution. It is located at the border of Permo-Carboniferous marbles and the Miocene limestones covering them. There are holes to look through and regular patterns of pitches in walls and ceiling. The walls offer numerous interesting forms, but only very few speleothems. At some locations there are massive stalagmites and pilars, many stalactites seem to be broken off, most likely by early visitor who took them as souvenirs. The floor has vast areas with small rimstone pools, which are not very big but cover wide areas of the floor. There are also small sections with calcite crystals, bulbous calcite, and even small pool fingers. A small deposit of cave pearls is presented prominently to the visitor, because of their rareness in Turkey. We are not aware of such a rareness, actually cave pearls are rare, and as far as we know there is no difference between Turkey and other countries.

The cave has a well-developed trail with railings on both sides made of stainless steel. It is a very recent discovery, connected with the construction of the nearby motoway which caused the construction of a service station and an exit with toll station. Several roads had to be changed, and during the road construction works at the Taşkuyu city limits, the cave was discovered by chance in 2006. Soon the development as a show cave was started, and it was finally opened to the public in 2014. The development was made by the Tarsus Municipality, which contributed 150,000 TRL, the rest was financed by ÇKA. The development cost in total was TRL 580,000, which is about EUR 18,000. This is quite astonishing, as it is more or less the cost of the required material. This is probably the cheapest cave development in the 21st century.

Some visitors mentioned the fact that lots of stalactites were broken off, which seems rather strange. Unlike other caves, this cave was never open for all to enter like so many others. It seems the short period before development started was enough for souvenir hunters to raid the cave.

The light system is rather good, mostly white lights, but there are some sections with the nasty yellow light and a few spots which were "enhanced" with coloured light. All in all it's okay. The cave is mostly horizontal and visited self-guided, but there are CCD cameras surveying the cave. It seems some of the damages to the speleothems were caused by visitors, so it is necessary to check regularly.

While the cave is only 200 m from the Adana-Erdemil Otoyolu (motorway), it is fortunately separated by a hill, and so the motorway is not visible. The cave entrance is located right on the main road through the village, at the city limits towards Tarsus. While it is possible to use the motorway and leave at the exit after the service station, it's a little complicated. We recommend taking the Çamlıyayla Tarsus Yolu road, which is also 4-lane, just with a few roundabouts. On the roundabout before crossing the motorway turn left towards Taşkuyu, after the last turn-off to the village its 150 m to the cave. There is a huge parking lot right across the road. Quite typical for many Turkish caves, there is not only a café and restaurant at the entrance, but also stalls selling souvenirs, a sort of frame where people may take selfies, and some street hawkers which try to attract the attention of tourists with colourful parrots.