Slovak and Aggtelek Karst belongs to landscapes that I had opportunity to explore several times, from both undergound and surface aspects. I visited not only 3 caves opened to public on Slovak side, but also explored karstic landscape of Slovak and Hungarian National Parks, mostly western and central parts. Well, it is written in the nomination text that only underground systems are inscribed and noting what is on the surface belongs to WHS, but both "worlds" are interconnected. Thus, one can recognize what is "down" also by picturesque karstic structures such as sinkholes and limestone pavements that are evenly scattered in the landscape of karstic plateaus. I found it also special and worth-visiting.

From inscribed caves, I visited Domica, Gombasek, and Ochtinská aragonitová caves. All of them are beautiful, and different to each other. However, after visiting of several/many caves of this and other regions, one can have a feeling that it is difficult to distinguish what cave is "more unique" than another - I can frankly say that I am not expert to recognize an uniqueness of stalagmite...

As concerns the structures visible on the surface, I found the karstic landscape of both Slovak and Aggtelek Karst National parks beautiful and quite easy to explore. There are many marked trails in the national parks. However, the area in the close vicinity around famous caves such as Domica, Ochtinska, Baradla or Gombasek is not very special - don´t be confused. One has to climb several hundred meters up to the plateaus such as Plešivská planina Plateau, which is covered by pastures with solitary trees and bushes, and dotted by numerous sinkholes. By the chance we found the "sink" of Zvonivá diera Chasm (photo) with the WHS plaque. The inside of the Chasm is accessible only to spoleologists with special permission. We met one who told us that this Chasm is exceptionaly beautiful inside. Silická planina Plateau is larger but not such picturesque as Plešivská, because several villages are included. There are also special places like Silická ladnica chasm, Bezodná ladnica chasm, etc. I liked the lanscape around village Kečovo with chasms, limestone pavements, etc. On the Hungarian side, the area is maybe not so wild, and it is evident that the buildings and visitors centers are not such abandoned and in decay as it is, sadly, on the Slovak side. In the eastern part of Aggtelek NP, we did a trip to Vecsem-bükki-szomboly Chasm. The typical feature of the karstic plateaus is that they are treacherous as concerns the orientation in the landscape, and one can be quite easily lost there... therefore it took 2 days for us to find this Chasm finding by coincidence one of the entrances to Meteor Cave (both Chasm and Cave also listed as particular WHS). Once again, what is seen on the surface is not very spectacular, and kids were a bit disappointed by the small hole, which is actually the sinkhole to this Chasm that is one of the deepest in the entire area. We also visited eastern parts of Slovak NP - Zádielsky gorge, which is not included to this WHS but proposed as TWHS together with a dramatic lanndscape of Slovenský Ráj (Slovak Paradise) National Park - Karts Valleys of Slovakia. We could see Zadiel even from distance, and this structure is really very impresive.

All in all, I liked the karstic landscape of this WHS, which is very diverse and picturesque. It deserves to be WHS.