KAFTAR KHANA, Haibak

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

Without haste it takes about two hours to explore the extensive Pigeon House Cave (note 1), which lies approximately 5 km west of Haibak (note 2) and in a hill called Kouh-Baz (note 3) by LINDBERG (1961a: 11-12). SITUATION: The cave entrance itself is situated at an elevation of 1210 m asl in the face of a marble cliff of a small gorge. COON (1957a: 231) makes the cave's situation obvious by placing it opposite of a village with white houses and about 140 m above the valley floor of a canyon in hard grey limestone. The cave entrance is difficult to reach for some: At first the path was smooth and the grade moderate, but by the time we had risen two hundred feet [60 m] we were making a fair imitation of mountain goats. At a height of four hundred feet [120 m] we came to a very perilous spot. Here the path was less than a foot wide. On the right the mountainside sloped up at an angle of forty-five degrees, and on the left was a sheer drop. CAVE DESCRIPTION: The large cave entrance leas to a spacious Main Chamber, 2 or 3 m further down, in which most of the space is occupied by a mound of fallen boulders. Still further down there is a -Lateral Chamber- with draughting chimneys (keyword: air current) climbing up to unexplored heights. The lowest point reached lies 60 (sixty) vertical metres below the entrance. Parts of the cave walls are decorated with concrétions mamelonnées [cone-shaped speleothems] but stalactites are rare and small. The floor is covered with fallen boulders and very small amounts of bat guano. The geologist Henry -Hank- W. Coulter jr. (in COON 1957a: 233) observed a dirt floor covered with huge blocks of fallen rock.CAVE CLIMATE: When an air temperature of 19°C was measured in the entrance on 17th May 1959 read the thermometer 17°C in the cold air current of the Lateral Chamber. CAVE LIFE: COON 1957a: 231) had heard that the cave is said to contain a huge skeleton. LINDBERG (1961a: 12) mentions bat guano and thus hints to Chiroptera. JUBERTHIE &DECU (2001: 1745) report from Kaftar Kaneh [sic!], Aibak Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones: Chernetidae: Megachernes afghanicus Beier.DECU (2001: 1745) report from Kaftar Kaneh [sic!], Aibak Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones: Chernetidae: Megachernes afghanicus Beier.