AGGTELEK  , a

village of Hungary, in the county of Gomor, situated to the south of Rozsnyo, on the road from Budapest to Dobsina . Pop . (190o) 557 . In the neighbourhood is the celebrated Aggtelek or Baradla cavern, one of the largest and most remarkable stalactite grottos in Europe . It has a length, together with its ramifications, of over 5 miles, and is formed of two caverns—one known for several centuries, and another discovered by the naturalist Adolf Schmidl in 1856 . Two entrances give access to the grotto, an old one extremely narrow, and a new one, made in 189o, through which the exploration of the cavern can be made in about 8 hours, half the time it took before . The cavern is composed of a 1'abyrinth of passages and large and small halls, and is traversed by a stream . In these caverns there are numerous stalactite structures, which, from their curious and fantastic shapes, have received such names as the Image of the Virgin, the Mosaic Altar, &c . The principal parts are the Paradies with the finest stalactites, the Astronomical Tower and the Beinhaus . Rats, frogs and bats form actually the only animal life in the caves, but a great number of antediluvian animal bones have been found here, as well as human bones and numerous remains of prehistoric human settlements .