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Todd
R. Kincaid, Hazlett-Kincaid, Inc.
The following article originally
appeared in the February 1996 issue of Atlas Travel
Magazine. The Karstdive cave explorations in the Taurus mountains supported by
ATLAS magazine resulted in repercussions of world-wide significance.
Finike's Gök Magara (Sky Cave) was explored but not to its depths.
Antalya's Kirkgöz (Forty Springs) cave system could not to be
investigated in full. However, one of the world's greatest reservoirs
has entered the records. The discoveries made under the leadership of
two American cave divers have entered history. From this point forward,
it reads: "Asia's largest cave is in Turkey..."
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| Photo: Hakan Gönendik
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Before Karstdive Project began, a team of Yugoslavian divers was hired to carry
out the first survey of Kirkgöz-Suluin but with their limited
technology only reached a depth of 40m. In the same region, the Karstdive
Project participants discovered a narrow fissure at 65m, which led
to a small tunnel that wound down to 80m and eventually up along a
passage to an enormous room. The two Americans returned with scooters
to explore Kirkgöz-Suluin and stumbled across the "Stadium",
named for its enormous size, (at least 100m in length by 60m and
50m in depth). The divers also managed to probe numerous side tunnels
leading away from the "Stadium"...
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| Photo: Zafer Kizilkaya
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In 1990, the French ADEKS team carried out two dives 63m into the Finike cave
system, returning data and resulting in a rough mapping of the system.
The Karstdive team entered the giant mouth of the cave and split at
45m. Gökhan Türe and Zafer Kizilkaya recorded details necessary
for the project and Todd Kincaid and Jarrod Jablonski continued to
a depth of 122m...
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| Photo: Zafer Kizilkaya
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Prior to the Karstdive effort, the Finike system was known only as containing
a deep cavern known as Incirli Gök Cave. Daylight streaming through
the mouth of this cave located just above sea level between Kas and
Finike give it an exceptional blue color. Algae floating on the surface
at the cave mouth made entry difficult for the divers. At a depth
of around 90m, Jarrod's scooter imploded from the excessive pressure.
Apart from breaking the record on this difficult dive the team would
later learn that they had investigated the deepest cave in Asia yet
discovered.
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| Photo: Hakan Gönendik
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The Americans made their first dive in Kirkgöz-Suluin without the aid of
scooters, presuming it would be a shallow dive. Finding the contrary,
they returned over an hour later, recording the following entry in
their log: "This cave is endless. At 80m we found a going tunnel."
It would have been risky to continue without underwater transport
and the divers had to leave exploration of the "Stadium" to another
day. In this photograph taken at the cave mouth the divers are preparing
to submerge.
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| Photo: Hakan Gönendik
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Underwater cave diving is very different from diving in the open sea. It is a
self sacrificing, exhausting, high-risk activity. The slightest mistake
can result in death. The Karstdive team at Kirkgöz-Suluin. Zafer
Kizilkaya is making last minute checks, Gökhan Türe readies
himself for a dive.
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| Photo: Zafer Kizilkaya
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Kirkgöz-Suluin; the team members examining flow stone and
travertine at a depth of nearly 40m.
A thin nylon line remembers the only link to the surface through crystal clear
water, water as transparent as the air we rely upon meters above us.
The lifeline spooled out as we propelled ourselves effortlessly through
cave passages with the aid of underwater scooters. Jarrod and I darted
out from a large hallway into what felt like oblivion. More than 30m
deep and over 300m from the nearest sunlight, we had literally fallen
into a room so capacious that the walls, floor and ceiling dropped
out of sight. Like astronauts suspended in outer space, I couldn't
stop laughing through my regulator, and when Jarrod turned to look
at me in disbelief, I saw he was having the same reaction. Later,
we mapped the room to be over 100 m by 100 m, and though our decompression
requirements precluded us from accurately measuring the vertical height,
our best guess was over 50 m. The cave - Kirkgöz-Suluin at Dösemealti,
Turkey - was appropriately dubbed the "Stadium". Jarrod and I had come
all the way from Florida, USA to the Taurus Mountains of southern
Turkey near Antalya. We joined our friends Gökhan Türe and
Zafer Kizilkaya of the Underwater Research Society (SAD) to explore
virgin underwater caves. What we found in Kirkgöz-Suluin is undoubtedly
one of the largest underwater chasms in the world.
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| Photo: Hakan Gönendik
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Jarrod Jablonski and I (Todd Kincaid), members of the Woodville Karst Plain Project
(WKPP) and the newly established Karst Research Society, are American
cave divers from Florida. We traveled to Turkey in the summer of 1995
for project Karst Dive 95. Karst Dive 95 was a joint research and
exploration project conducted by the WKPP and SAD in cooperation with
the International Research and Application Center for Karst Water
Resources (UKAM) of Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey, the University
of Wyoming Department of Geology and Geophysics (UWG&G) of Wyoming,
USA, the State Hydraulic Works (DSI) of Antalya, Turkey, and Kepez
Electric Company also of Antalya. The goal was to explore, map, and
document several underwater cave systems along the southern flank
of the Taurus Mountains. Both UKAM and UWG&G were particularly interested
in gaining a better understanding of the regional ground water flow
system near Antalya. DSI and Kepez Electric hoped to learn how to
increase the water supply to the Antalya region. Personally, the four
of us (Jarrod and I, Gökhan and Zafer) were hoping to find "Power
Cave".
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| Photo: Hakan Gönendik
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At first glance the goals seemed simple: the exploration and mapping of underwater
caves is a familiar task. However, the enormous logistical hurdles
we encountered made it seem as if we were attempting to explore the
moon. Because cave and technical diving equipment are not available
in Turkey, the first task was to get all the necessary equipment from
Florida across the Atlantic to Turkey. Fortunately, Lufthansa Airways
(Germany) graciously sponsored the project by shipping the over 700
kg. of tanks, regulators, diver propulsion vehicles, lights, dry suits,
etc. from Miami, Florida to Ankara, Turkey. Once in Turkey, the gear
had to clear Turkish customs and it was only through the help of UKAM
that we were able to finally receive our gear after four short days.
From Ankara, we hauled the equipment by caravan (bus, pickup truck,
and cargo company) 700 km. across the country to Antalya. We shipped
in precious helium and oxygen from the British Oxygen Company (Turkey)
in Ankara only to find that the fittings were incompatible with our
equipment. Luckily, we had established our base at Kepez Electric
Company where the capable but bewildered staff came to our rescue,
fabricating the necessary adapters. Taking one problem at a time,
we had almost over looked the logistics of transporting four divers
and their equipment to and from the dive sites. Atlas Magazine (Turkey)
provided the necessary funding to rent a minibus for longer journeys,
and Kepez Electric and DSI supplied a huge 4WD truck and cars for
the shorter trips. After two and a half weeks of preparations, meetings,
and frustrating delays, we were finally ready to do what we came for:
cave-diving.
Squashed in the back seat of the 4WD, I looked out the window
toward the rugged mountains in the distance with
amazement. I had suddenly realized that Jarrod and I, a couple of
cave-diving college boys from Florida, were in Turkey,
10,000 km from home, about to suit up and dive under a mountain.
The people here considered us the experts, the expert
explorers who would fathom the depths of their fabled and mysterious
submerged system of caves, produce accurate
maps, and capture it all on video tape. A lump as big as the mountain
lodged in my throat. Would these caves even go past
the light zone? How deep? How far? How much water, and how clear?
We soon would find answers to these questions and more.
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| Photo: Hakan Gönendik
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Kirkgöz-Suluin... Preparations for diving are underway, equipment
laid out on the rocks. Shortly they will descend into the strangely
beautiful underwater world of karstified limestone.
In the late afternoon of my 17th day in Turkey, we arrived at one of the main
discharges from the Kirkgözler spring system situated at the
base of the Taurus Mountains. I was told that this was only one of
many, as "Kirkgözler" - directly translated - means "40 eyes",
but perhaps more accurately means several springs (editor's note:
Kirkgözler may also mean 40 springs). The particular area to
which we had come was reported to contain the biggest caves in the
region. Crystal clear water emerged from a small cave at the base
of a large vertical fissure in the extensively karstified limestone,
but the discharge seemed low. We decided to search for another entrance
to Suluin, the largest documented cave in the area. Following Gökhan
like billy-goats, Jarrod, Zafer, and I scoured the jagged mountain
side, looking behind every clump of trees for a cave entrance until
a shout from Gökhan indicated that he had found it. A steep climb
down around huge boulders into the cave revealed a magnificent pool
about 10m across. The afternoon sun striking the water revealed a
large cavern beckoning from beneath diaphanous water. It was stunning.
We were excited, but the realization that it would take a full day
to haul all the equipment over the 1km stretch from the truck and
over 30m up the mountain from the plateau awoke us from the momentary
dream. Thinking optimistically, we planned an afternoon dive into
the spring, and hopefully we would encounter an underwater connection.
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| Photo: Gökhan Türe
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Finike... Collecting survey data underwater.
Back at Kirkgöz spring, the small entrance and low discharge hid nothing.
Gökhan and Zafer stayed at the entrance as Jarrod and I investigated
the narrow passage. We followed a thick line for a short distance
(probably left by a Yugoslavian team that had been paid to explore
some of these caves) less than 50m down a tight and winding tunnel
that really demanded single tanks. Jarrod attached a new reel to the
existing thread, and we squeezed our way through one tight channel
after another, our passing punctuated by the resonating ring of our
double steel tanks striking the extremely hard limestone. Forty-five
minutes later we were back at the cave entrance having found only
two tunnels and reached the end of both. The conduits trended a 20m
depth, leading us only approximately 270m. from the entrance. Tired
and disappointed at not having found a connection, we headed home
to prepare the equipment for the next day's trek up the mountain to
Suluin.
The next morning the real work began. Though most of the
equipment was left in the cave for the duration of our exploratory
efforts in Suluin, trimix and nitrox bottles needed to be remixed,
O2 refilled, and scooters and light batteries required charging for
each dive. This became our routine for every diving day. Each morning,
the task of hauling tanks, scooters, and light batteries uphill to the
cave was shared between five of us: Jarrod, I, Gokhan, Zafer, and Hakan
(our team doctor). After the dive, Gökhan, Zafer, and Hakan were
left to haul it out themselves, as the risk of decompression sickness
left Jarrod and I unavailable. Upon arriving back at Kepez, the tanks
were remixed and filled, the batteries put on charge, and decompression
tables run. The day usually ended around 9.00 P.M., just in time for a
quick dinner before diving into slumber.
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| Photo: Hakan Gönendik
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A dive was made at Kirkgöz II spring next to Ox Cave. Eventualy
the extremely narrow passage becomes impassable to divers, narrowing
to a mere crevice.
We arrived at Suluin for the first dive on August 19 around 9.30 A.M. Since the
cave was reported to run deep near the entrance, we had mixed 15/50
trimix (that's 15% oxygen and 50% helium) in the back tanks with a
air stage bottle and 50% nitrox and O2 for decompression. As the water
rose over my head I turned away from the sunlit entrance to see the
floor slope away beneath me. The cave appeared cobalt blue, a manifestation
of our lights reflecting off the white walls through the limpid water.
Gökhan and Zafer were snapping photos like mad. Jarrod was tying
off his reel to the end of another thick line that only penetrated
the cave some few tens of meters. The cave walls were blanketed with
flow stone, and a stalagtite forest hung overhead. Jarrod and I pushed
down and into Suluin while Gökhan and Zafer stayed in the shallows
to measure and photograph the cavern. We followed it back to a passage
that led in about 200m and down to over 60m deep before it apparently
came to an end. We faced a small restriction in the floor, which prevented
us from advancing any further; our equipment made us to bulky to pass
through. Returning to the main cavern we followed another passage
for around 50m when it too came to an abrupt conclusion, leading up
to a surface above. (We would later find this air chamber from decompression
but surfacing there revealed only more flow stone and no way out.)
It looked as if no further tunnel was going to be found, and we headed
back to the entrance.
Reaching the surface didn't brighten the mood either as our friends
had more bad news. The Jandarma (Turkish National Guard) had come while
we were submerged. Apparently the Kirkgöz region is a protected
archeological site and special government permission is required to be
there. Once again, we were faced with more delays. Two days passed
before the necessary permits were obtained and diving could resume.
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| Photo: Hakan Gönendik
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The mouth of Kirkgöz-Suluin from inside the cave...
We returned to Suluin on August 23rd. Though morale was extremely low, we needed
to complete the cave survey and shoot some more video. Once more the
gear was donned and the four of us descended. Gökhan and Zafer
shot video of the cavern and took more photos while Jarrod and I swam
in to finish collecting the survey data. Little did we know, the tide
was about to change. We headed for the deep tunnel first. At line's
end, Jarrod was investigating a small fissure while I dropped down
to investigate the restriction. Squeezing down to 65m revealed a small
tunnel that ran back and further in. Before I could come up, Jarrod
entered it with the reel, letting out the nylon as he went. We followed
the small passage as it snaked circuitously down to a depth of over
80m. The passage then began to rise, and before I knew it we were
traversing what seemed like a large hallway at only 45m. Turning a
corner, our limestone hallway widened, exploding into an enormous
room. Unfortunately, in our pessimism we had left the scooters back
at Kepez not expecting to find any leads. (It always seems to work
like that, probably thanks to a guy named Murphy.) I checked my air
pressure to find that it was time to return. Begrudgingly, I signaled
Jarrod and we headed out. At decompression we made plans for the next
dive. As I remember it was captured in a single word: scooters!
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| Photo: Hakan Gönendik
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Divers of the Karstdive project at Kirkgöz-Suluin conducting
safety checks prior to diving.
That dive set the stage for the rest of the trip. We spent two more days exploring
Kirkgöz-Suluin. We discovered the Stadium on the next dive, the
largest water filled room I have ever encountered. Flow stone, travertine
draperies, and stalagtites covered the walls - that is, the walls
we could see. One whole dive - over 40 minutes in the Stadium - was
spent following three walls of the same room. We couldn't explore
the top of the rooms without violating the decompression ceiling.
The bottom was more than 20m below. I felt like a fly on a window
looking for a way out. So many leads fanned out before us that one
year of diving could be spent trying to count them all. Another day
was definitely in order, but we faced two immediate problems. First,
our exhaust gas was dislodging sediment from the ceiling, reducing
visibility all along our path; and second, hauling the equipment up
and down the mountain was back-breaking work. Red tape and delays
had compressed our time-table to such an extent that accomplishing
our goals meant back to back diving for the remainder of the trip.
For four consecutive days we carried hundreds of kilograms worth of
equipment up and down the hill. Five days would have to be enough.
On August 25 we descended into Kirkgöz-Suluin for the last time.
We explored and surveyed several side tunnels leading away from the
Stadium and brought video camera and video lights to document our
finds. All total, Suluin revealed over 800m of passages, a room the
size of a football stadium, and a wealth of archeological artifacts.
Satisfied with a job well done, we carried the equipment down the
mountain one final time and headed back to Kepez. We had only two
more days to hit the last two targets before our equipment would have
to be packed for the return trip to the USA.
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| Photo: Hakan Gönendik
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Kirkgöz-Suluin... Gökhan Türe waiting for Todd and Jarrod.
The next stop was Düdenbasi, a large spring discharging from the travertine
plateau just outside of Antalya. It was like familiar territory. The
setting was reminiscent of a Florida encounters: a large magnitude
spring discharging from a lat carbonate plateau. The spring and the
surrounding area have been converted into a state park where tourists
come from all over the world to see the lush oasis in the otherwise
arid Turkish landscape. From a diverted stream channel water falls
over travertine cliffs to mix with the water from Düdenbasi below.
The height of the waterfall, the blue water at the bottom, and lush
green trees and grasses combine to create a spectacular setting for
a dive. Sadly, attention is quickly diverted from the wondrous natural
beauty to the piles of litter on the shores and the knowledge that
though the water quality is still good, the current practice of sewage
disposal directly to the travertine plateau without treatment will
inevitably have it's effects. It's unfortunate that such a beautiful
place should be subjected to the litter of tourists and the environmental
catastrophes created by man. Expeditions such as this one will hopefully
raise the public awareness and help foster a concern for conservation
and environmental protection in the Antalya region.
Anticipating a shallow dive, we used air in the back tanks with one
nitrox stage bottle and O2 for decompression. Gökhan and Zafer
admitted some difficulty in swimming against the flow but managed to
collect photographs of the entrance. To overcome the high discharge,
Jarrod and I headed in full speed with scooters. The visibility was
poor, however, only around 3m, which in a conduit such as Düdenbasi
(12 min diameter) impeded our progress. It was a constant struggle to
maintain a close formation. Jarrod led with the reel while I made the
necessary wraps in the line to insure that it remained tight in the
high flow. Too much slack could result in a dangerous entanglement.
Holding true to the apparent "Turkish Tradition," Düdenbasi came
up with a surprise. After penetrating 400m, the tunnel had dropped to
a depth of over 65m, and lacking the necessary decompression gas for
a dive this deep we were forced to turn back. Though another dive was
certainly in order, our time-table couldn't permit it, and we had to
say good-bye to this mysterious tunnel at Düdenbasi, at least
for 1995.
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| Photo: Hakan Gönendik
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Calibrating the oxygen level.
We spent another late night mixing gas, filling tanks, charging lights and scooters,
this time loading it all into a minibus. The following morning's four-hour
drive would take us to our last target, Gök Cave, a reportedly
deep cave somewhere near the town of Finike on the Mediterranean coast.
Luckily the bus came with a driver - most of its passengers were dead
on their feet. Elvan, Gokhan's wife, had come down from Ankara to
join us, but she probably found better conversation with the driver
on that trip. We arrived in Finike around 11:00 a.m. on August 27th.
From there a French report on the cave that had been prepared some
years before provided the only directions. It felt like our luck had
changed when we quickly found the cave just beside the highway only
1.5km south of Finike. That feeling quickly disappeared, however,
when we found that getting to the water required a 30m hike up the
mountainside followed by the same distance down a treacherous scree
slope into the entrance of the cave. The slope was also covered in
goat dung which was not only distasteful but also quite slippery.
To make matters even worse, the cave was only 10m. away from the blue
warm water of the Mediterranean Sea. After joking about going for
a nice open water dive, we bit the bullet and began hauling equipment
up another mountain.
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| Photo: Hakan Gönendik
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At Düdenbasi an artificial waterfall has been created by a
drainage channel from Kepez Power Station and water flowing from
irrigation channels. Divers preparing to submerge.
A beautiful blue pool sat at the base of an immense cavern in the side of the
karstified limestone mountain. Long strands of green algae floated
calmly on the surface. The water was colder than Kirkgöz and
Düdenbasi and was quite salty. Since Gök Cave was thought
to be a deep, we came prepared with 15/50 trimix in both the back
tanks and in a single stage bottle each. Air, 50% nitrox, and O2 were
brought in for decompression. After all the equipment had been brought
in and set up, decompression tables were run to cover any imaginable
contingency. We had been diving for the last 4 days straight and wanted
to play it safe. In 5 minute intervals from 3 to 55 minutes, tables
were cut on a lap top computer and transferred onto an underwater
slate for 7m depth intervals from 60 to 100m. It took over an hour
and everyone's patience wore thin. But we were prepared, at least
I thought we were, for anything Gök Cave had to offer.
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| Photo: Zafer Kizilkaya
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Gökhan Türe busy adjusting his camera at the entrance of
Kirkgöz-Suluin before diving.
After gearing up, Jarrod and I descended into the cavern to decide whether video
would be in order. I was immediately overwhelmed by the size of the
entrance. Later it was measured to be over 80m in diameter. The water
was "air" clear, and the cave immediately dropped deep out of sight,
heading deep into the mountain without diminishing. After dropping
scooters and decompression bottles, we returned to the surface for
Gökhan and Zafer, the video camera, and every light we had. Trying
to stay above 30m, the four of us slowly swam around the cavern entrance
video taping massive speleothems on the walls and ceiling, and the
spectacular view of the sun filtering into the gargantuan mouth of
the cave. After 15 minutes it was time to split up. The camera and
lights were handed off to Gökhan, and Zafer, Jarrod and I headed
down. Even though the water was crystal clear we couldn't simultaneously
see both sides of the tunnel at once due mainly to it's sheer size.
Being in the middle brought a disturbing feeling of insignificance.
Jarrod picked the left wall and we continued to follow the ceiling
which ran at a slight but noticeable angle that took us continually
deeper. While Jarrod spooled out the line, I made the wraps around
stalagtites so huge that it was like giving them a bear-hug to get
the line around. Finally, we came to a ledge on top of a huge snow-white
wall. At 90m below the surface the ledge provided a necessary depot
for our scooters - they aren't designed for that kind of depth. Making
another wrap, I followed Jarrod in his descent along the face of the
wall where the conduit kept going in and down. Looking at my depth
gauge, I realized that Gök Cave had also held true to the "Turkish
Tradition" as we were passing 110m and still dropping. We finally
tied off the reel on top of a huge fallen boulder at 117m. The cave
appeared to bottom out. A small restriction looked enticing but, being
20m deeper than our deepest decompression schedule, we had no time
to think about anything but getting out. Returning to the scooters
at 90m, a loud popping sound was a sure sign of trouble. Jarrod's
scooter had imploded from the excessive pressure! Using the motor
to keep it up, Jarrod swam it out while I finished collecting the
survey data. Unfortunately, I was too busy with the survey to see
for myself, but Jarrod said that he could see the sunlit entrance
all the way out from the 80m depth.
Three and a half hours later we broke the surface of the water a
little apprehensive about decompression sickness but still overwhelmingly
excited at having explored such a tremendous cave. We had penetrated over
230m of Gök Cave to a depth of 117m, with a total bottom time of 25
minutes, excluding the 15 minute video dive. As it turns out, Gök
Cave is now the deepest known underwater cave in Asia. The expedition
couldn't have ended in a better way.
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| Photo: Hakan Gönendik
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The cave mouth of the Finike system. The deep blue water of Incirli
Gök Cave with floating green algae...
All told, two years of joint planning between Turkish and American divers, and
one month of intense preparations, meetings, and red tape produced
only 8 solid days underwater. Nevertheless, diving through the Stadium
at Kirkgöz-Suluin, dropping 117m down into Gök Cave, and
becoming good friends with fellow underwater explorers from this far
away land of Turkey made it all worth while. Working together, we
were able to explore 5 different cave systems. Survey data was collected
from each system that will give the universities, DSI, and Kepez a
better idea of the groundwater flow system in the Antalya region.
Water and rock samples will aid ongoing studies at UKAM regarding
the history of karstification in southern Turkey. And, much of the
exploration was captured on video tape to be shared with the world.
Karst Dive 95 was truly a cooperative effort, for without the help
of our many friends and sponsors nobody would have even gotten wet.
It would take too much time to properly list all the people that took
part in the project, but, beyond our sponsors mentioned earlier, special
thanks go to American Underwater Lighting (USA) (who supplied us with
the video camera and lights), and the National Speleological Society-Cave
Diving Section (USA) who supplied over 3000m. of nylon exploration
line, 1600 m. of which were left in the caves as our trail, a memory
of our discoveries.
Of course there will be a Karst Dive 96. Gökhan and Zafer will
come to Florida next summer to receive formal cave and technical training.
Undoubtedly more divers will participate, both Turkish and American. And,
though there will hopefully be more logistical support, more problems and
who knows how many more surprises will arise through the "Turkish
Tradition," but Jarrod and I plan to find out!
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