The cave system of the Aggtelek and Slovak Karst was inscribed mainly because of the high number of caves in a relatively small area and the variety of geological morphology, but less because of the outstanding value of the individual caves. At the time of inscription 712 caves were registered, 23 are listed in the nomination files (see above), today more than 1000 are known, and seven or eight of them are show caves and open to the public.

We spent one day for this WHS, we have chosen three caves that cover the diversity of the cave types: the Dobšinská Ice Cave, the Ochtinská Aragonite Cave, and the Gombasecká cave.

First, we visited the Dobšinská Ice Cave. Ice caves with year-round ice formations are relatively rare, there must be sub-zero temperatures throughout the year, at least in parts of the cave. The main attractions in the Dobšinská Cave are the huge ice block that fills almost the whole first part of the cave, and the Great Hall, where the ice is up to 26 metres thick and where you can also see ice columns and ice stalagmites. I have previously visited two ice caves in Austria, the Dachstein Ice Cave (WHS Hallstatt-Dachstein) and the Werfen Eisriesenwelt (no WHS, near Salzburg). I have to admit, that I was more impressed by the ice formations in the Werfen Cave.

Next we went to the Ochtinská Aragonite Cave (photo), definitely the highlight of our cave tour. Aragonite is a crystalline form of calcium carbonate, a very common mineral. But in the Ochtinska Cave it creates a wonderful variety of shapes: thin needles, spirals, branched tufts, cones and a lot more. It's really unique, very different from the usual stalactites and stalagmites. The cave consists of ten small halls, the most impressive is the Milky Way Hall. It was named after a long crack in the ceiling, decorated with milky white bundles of aragonite. We all had a stiff neck after the guided tour.

The Gombasecká Cave is a dripstone cave, the special feature are the extremely thin stalactites, only a few millimetres in diameter, but sometimes up to three metres long. But there are also the usual stalactites and stalagmites. Nice to visit, but not really outstanding.

We travelled by car, so it was easy to visit the three caves in one day. Dobšinská is about 45 minutes from Ochtinská, and from there it is only 20 minutes to Gombasecká. Each tour takes about 40 to 45 minutes; there are hourly tours in the summer season. It would be possible to visit even more caves, the Baradla-Domica cave complex is only 20 kilometres from Gombasecká, but three were more than enough for one day. The entrance fee was five to eight euros (in August 2014), and photo permit costs ten (Dobšinská and Ochtinská) or seven euros (Gombasecká), respectively

Of course it is difficult to assess the value of an extensive cave system by visiting only a few caves, but I think we got a glimpse of the diversity of the site. We enjoyed our cave tour, and at least the Aragonite Cave was a unique and impressive experience.