SAHIYA CAVE

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

An unspecified cave entrance (unidentified shape, unidentified dimensions, unidentified orientation, unidentified characteristics) is said to give access to a relatively dry cave, extremely narrow … Its basically breaking of the rock and therefore is like a narrow slit. Country rock: Limestone interbedded with slate (Kotlia, B S 2005.11.09 Mss: Notebook). The fault plane bound cave is not only said to contain secondary calcite deposits (note 1) but also estimated to be pretty long and endowed with different levels, small ponds, very narrow passages, side -caves- , i.e. other passages (Breitenbach, S 2005.12.01 Mss after personal communication with Bahadur Kotlia & Gyatri Kathayat). ETYMOLOGY: No autochthonous, indigenous or locally known name has been identified for what has been christened Sahiya Cave (Kotlia, B S 2005.11.09 Mss: Notebook) after the town of Sahiya, which is said to lie 2.2 km in an unidentified direction from the cave entrance. IDENTITY: Since Prof. B. S. Kotlia propsed to christen this item Sahiya Cave it possibly is identical with the –>Chohia Cave (Leakey, Robert D. 1946.08.20: Mss Letter to Glennie, Edward Aubrey), which GLENNIE (1943: 42) aptly called showcave due to easy access, beautiful calcite decorations, and funny passages fit for infecting neophytes with the cave bug. SITUATION: In an unidentified setting and at an unspecified location at Sahiya town (note 2) or at Sahia (2.2 km from town) towards Smalta village [note 3] (Kotlia 2005.11.09 Mss: Notebook). POSITION 1: Near N30°36'45.7” : E077°52' 29.7” (WGS84, Breitenbach's GPS 1): 1107 m asl but also about 37 m approximately further ENE POSITION 2: Near N30°36'46.2” : E077°52' 30.9” (WGS84, Kotlia's GPS 2): 1046 m asl (Breitenbach 2005.12.01 Mss). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1: A relatively dry cave, extremely narrow. I went only until 20 m, Gyatri and Bittu went up to 50 m. Its basically breaking of the rock and therefore is like a narrow slit. Country rock: Limestone interbedded wih slate (Kotlia, B S 2005.11.09 Mss: Notebook). CAVE DESCRIPTION 2: The fault plane bound cave contain not only speleothems and is not pretty long but also endowed with different levels, small ponds, very narrow passages, side -caves-, i.e. other passages (Breitenbach, S 2005.12.01 Mss after personal communication with Bahadur Kotlia & Gyatri Kathayat). PROSPECTS: Promising.h slate (Kotlia, B S 2005.11.09 Mss: Notebook). CAVE DESCRIPTION 2: The fault plane bound cave contain not only speleothems and is not pretty long but also endowed with different levels, small ponds, very narrow passages, side -caves-, i.e. other passages (Breitenbach, S 2005.12.01 Mss after personal communication with Bahadur Kotlia & Gyatri Kathayat). PROSPECTS: Promising.