Ayvaini Mağarası

Useful Information

Location:	Ayvaköy, Ayvaköy İç Yolu, 16110 Ni̇lüfer/Bursa, Türkiye Ayva village. (40.124157, 28.700994)
Open:	no restrictions. [2024]
Fee:	free. [2024]
Classification:	Karst Cave River Cave
Light:	bring torch
Dimension:	L=4,866 m.
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Ayvaini Mağarası, Ayvaköy, Ayvaköy İç Yolu, 16110 Ni̇lüfer/Bursa, Tel: +90-535-358-93-93.
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

1970	cave discovered by Spanish cavers.

Description

Ayvaini Mağarası (Ayva ini magarasi, Cave of Ayva) is named after nearby village Ayvaköy (Ayva village). It is a through-cave which is generally entered through its upper entrance called Doğanalanı (40.105185947998564, 28.68281906929129). Here the cave starts with a 17 m drop which must be abseiled, the rest of the cave is almost horizontal. If the drop is too steep, you may try the other entrance called Ayvaköy and enter the cave upstream. This lower entrance is the resurgence of the cave river and flooded after rains during winter. Most pages write that the cave was "hydrologically active", and we guess they did not understand the term. It simply means that this is a so-called river cave where a cave river flows seasonally. This page is intended to warn before you go, the information which is published on the web is more or less nonsense.

This cave is 4,866 m long [2020], which made it at that time the eighth-longest cave of Turkey. However, such superlatives change frequently, every time a new cave is discovered and surveyed or an old one extended. The distance between the two entrances is 2.6 km as the crow flies, pages giving 4 km or more probably talk about the road. There are about half a dozen POIs on Google Maps, and all of them are wrong, as well as the one on OSM and the coordinates on Wikipedia. On the other hand, it is actually not difficult to find the cave entrance: follow the Karadonlu river bed upstream. This works best when there is no river, so best time for a visit is definitely when there was no rain for some time in late summer. There is no development at all, even the access to the cave entrances is tricky and overgrown. If you see a show cave photo on one of the Google pages, it’s from another cave.

Several pages state for years that development work is ongoing. The government placed a road sign for the upper entrance, and there are sings in the village, probably placed by the municipality. The cave is a 2-hour drive from Istanbul, that’s weekend or day trip distance, a great potential for domestic tourism. We are actually astonished that it was not developed as a show cave long ago. There actually was a plan to develop the lower entrance with an elevated trail around 2010. Several pages, including the Wikipedia page, stated that the cave is either easy to visit or in the state of development as a show cave, some even stated it already was a show cave. But in 2012 the Mağara Araştırmacıları Derneği Bursa Şubesi (Bursa Branch of Cave Researchers Association) objected to these plans with the argument that the cave will lose its naturalness and turn into a picnic area. Its unclear if the politicians actually understood their concerns, or if there were other reasons, but all development plans were subsequently cancelled. A part of the web pages listing it as a tourist site were subsequently deleted, unfortunately there are still some online and people get the wrong expression that it was an easy tourist cave. We hope this page will help rectify this.

A tour is a real caving trip, The dry entrance starts with a 17 m drop, climbing gear and skills are mandatory, it is definitely not a harmless semi-wild cave. The wet or lower entrance is easier to enter, but there is not even a trail from the village to the cave entrance. And there are several steep parts until finally the cave entrance is reached. The main passage is quite spacious, but soon it is water filled, even during summer. Bring appropriate clothes and shoes, helmet and lamp. Rubber boots are also necessary, even better is a boat. Never cave alone and leave a return time with a trustworthy person. In general, we recommend to find a cave trekking operator who offers the tour. As far as we understood, not only the cave development was stopped, the cave was also closed to the public. In other words, if you go there, its unlikely anything happens, but cave trekking operators will not offer guided tours as this is illegal now.

The cave offers numerous speleothems, including rimstone pools and calcite crystals. Be careful where you walk and do not destroy the formations.