By Jan Smoll-Branislav Smida

The entrance of the cave "Gryka e Madhe" was localised in May 1992(this visible spring area was known to the local settlers since ever), by five Slovak cavers(J. Smoll, L. Ockaik, P. Holubek, J. Klesken and J. Vykoupil)who were passing through the Rugova Gorge on their way to the recognition journey in Macedonia. It is situated in the left side of the canyon, about 50-60m above the river, at the heel of surprising rock tower, which is about 350m high. The flow from the spring was about 600 l/sec, but about 5m from the spring there was found a serious cave corridor, but after 100m explorers came to lake which deepens. In the summer of the same year, duo J. Smoll and J. Vajs with their wifes, they passed through the same passage but this time it was dry. The breakthrough happened three years later on the 29th of October 1995, the group of four cavers, P. Herich, J. Poliak, J. Smoll and J. Vykoupil got after the removal of some blocks in the lower so called flood offspring, which was dry again, to a cave with river floor and with siphons after about five hours of work. In the corridor above, in the same day they passed much further... There was no trace of water here and so the explorers of the cave "Gryka e Madhe" (or in Slovak "Velika Klisura") entered into it's tract several hundreds of meters. Completely freely, it was just necessary to climb smaller steps from time to time... By the high crevice corridors, as if by some underground canyon they got to the end to somehow muddy semi-siphon, where the draft and the echo suggested some further interesting continuation after eventual digging through. At the main line of the cave they also lowered at this expedition to the underground river and they preliminarily explored some dark and dimensional chimneys and passages heading upwards. (Smoll,1995,1996)
The regular and serious expedition, connected wide the further exploration and with the cave climbing, also with the cave mapping, was realized in February 1996. A group of twelve cavers managed to get through semi-siphon, and then they entered to beautifully decorated two-level labyrinth of oval corridors, by the direct distance it was 700 meters to the massif, where the cave preliminary ended by the beautifull green siphons. From the known range already 6km in that time, the cave was precisely mapped during the five days of the expedition in the detailed scale 1:200, the first 3424 meters were mapped. (Smida-Smoll,1996,1997).
Until the burst of the war in Kosova, which disabled the continuing in the research because of the fear, there were two explorational expeditions, always during the charming autumns, in the years 1996 and 1997. During these expeditions there was a lot of mapping and climbing. In the middle portion of the main line of the cave some chimney areas were climbed, which connected again to sub-horizontal levels and oblique passages, no once there was enormously dense network or relatively dimensional passages and also abysses. In the deepest area of the cave, in one chimney, there was also reached the relative altitude from the entrance +296m and the whole known range of the cave exceeded to 8km (Smida, Smoll,1998).
After the war ended in Kosova, precisely during the summer 2002 the Italian group of cavers from speleo-club Orobico, from city of Bergamo came to the area, for some research and training the local cavers and cavers from other citys of Kosova and they left behind some of their gear to the them so they can continuo the research. At the autumn of the same year the Slovak and local cavers accindentally got to the contact, and since then we have excellent, more than friendly relationship and cooperation between.
Since then in the cave there was reached relative altitude +250 m and +165 m from the entrance, however with the possibilities of further proceedings(Szunyog, 2004;Smoll,2003,2005). At one of these expeditions there was already performed an exploration of the siphonal zones at the underground river floor(Gliviak,2004). Also some surface prospecting of the plateau began, some smoller abysses were climbed (until now to the depth -75m) and there were also performed the first, very difficult alpinistic explorations of the steep slopes and walls, focused around the entrance to the cave "Gryka e Madhe"(Velika Klisura) and preliminarily in fact in the whole limestone zone of the Gryka e Rugoves (Rugova Canyon. The explorations are continuing.

THE MORPHOLOGY AND THE GENESIS OF THE CAVE

The cave system "Gryka e Madhe", or Great Canyon in English, or Velika Klisura in Slovak language, is a typical, directly exhibitional example of partial phreatic zones which are lowering in time.
The passages of the cave are in the higher portions in fact paleo-siphons, with knee like shape, with the height up to 20-30m. These corridors have oval, often elliptic profiles, they are more homogenous, and often significantly more dimensional than the lower levels of the cave, which have the character of as if continuous underground canyon with quite vertical walls, levels and debris. The higher levels are either without sediments, or with the sandy deposits, in the lower levels there is possible to find bigger round stones, which got here by falling through individual passage horizons.
There is in the cave more clear and evidently developed roughly 5 cave levels: the first is the very active river floor. This reaches altitude about 66m from the entrance. It has a dynamic, locally radical declination, in spite of that, that some bigger water-falls are not developed. The highest step has roughly 3 meters. It is possible to go to the river floor at several places, by the oblique, steep, pipe passages, by the chimneys and collapsed areas. The area of the active flow was not passed in a continuous way, there are deep siphon pits at more places, it is possible to see nicely here how the today's higher levels evolved. The passages around the river floor are smaller; they are often quite rough, with lugs, no once in the form of flat oblique space. Locally there are sediments of colourful gravel.
The higher level, the main tact of the cave has quasi sub-horizontal character, and at the altitude cca +80 m and length 1 km there are only few steps, the highest has 10 m (so called Crossroad). The passages are comfortable here, it is possible to walk in them, and they reach 2-5 meters in average, while their ceilings disappear in the darkness and in the crevices.

This level, in average 15-20 m above the active flow, literally copies the level with the underground river. The passages of this level are in the frontal part of the cave (King's Passage, Crocodile, Bear Dome), pipe-like, of paleo-phreatic apperance, relatively dimensional, locally interconnected in a difficult way, up to labyrinth-like.
In the introductory part of the cave these two levels are symetrically connected by three dimensional "chaos" of smaller passages and connections, which are not properly explored until today, neither mapped( so called Passages of Rattle Snake).
Some unique portion of the cave is also Toboggan, originally phreatic siphon steep slope, where at the lowering of the water level, at enormous water conditions, the water was surely flowing through some rocky barrier step, and created marvellous, steep smooth ravines and grooves, two meters deep and one meter wide.
The very strange fact in the cave is, that while in the frontal part of the cave any sinter decoration is missing (except the draft cave corals at the entrance areas), the further portion behind the semi-siphon of Militias, is beautifully decorated, perhaps with all possible types of speleothemes, what is hard to imagine in the middle zone between the middle European and Mediterranean conditions in the underground: there are robust pagodas and columns here, up to several meters soda straws, flowstone stalactites and draperies, pile stalagmites, sinter little rim stone dams and lakes with pearls and crystallites. The remarkable things in the cave are mainly the cauldron like dishes, covered with crystals of calcite and clusters of crystals. The other ineresting fillings are the sandy concretions with the shapes up to balls, in the level above the Rainbow dome. In the entry passages(Leopard's passage) there are blast spots of vermiculite and stains after the fossil floods.
The other characteristic features of the cave are the oblique spaces which are often with tiny flows. They are more flat, but very steep passages, almost chimneys (with the angle above 60-degrees) which have the bottoms sintered by little rim stone dams.
In these chimneys, which drain the water probably also from the surface of the plateau, the flow can increase from decilitres up to 20 times and so we were surprised in one moment by the rustling, up to roaring, quite abundant river, and we worried whether the acess semi-siphon in the middle of the cave will not be flooded... These active chimneys end usually by the narrows, or with tiny windows, which are necessary to be made wider (by the drills and by the bullets).
The progress still higher and further is still possible here and it is very probably that in certain altitude these steep passages accidentally connect with the sub-horizontal levels. Such passages were found and recognised better above the middle portion of the cave, at the height about 150-170 meters above the entrance. The highest horizon in the cave is the Floor of Climbers, at the altitude about 260-270 m above the entry point of the cave.
The cave was created in the Middle Triassic limestone's, mostly dark-grey, at the base almost purple-red, with little veins, locally marbleized. The position of the lifted offspring from the system is given by the impenetrable bedrock, with the shale of the lower Triassic.(Up at the plateau we noticed already the Jurassic faces of carbonates, for example motley breccia.)
The system has the most probably clearly autochthonous genesis. The gravel fraction suggests idea, it is created almost exclusively by colourful carbonates (mica, or tiny sandy round stones can come from Triassic inter-layers.

THE HYDROLOGICAL CONDITIONS AND THE PERSPECTIVES

The lowest level of the underground flow reaches (in the winter time) about 15 l/s. At the increased water level there were observed here flows of 800 or 1000 l/s, and it is possible to suppose that at the enormous water levels the flow of the offspring reaches even 2-3 m3/s. The cave similarly as many other Balkan or Turkish caves gets relatively deeply to the massif, at relatively quasi small surpass (at the main drainage base). Also here some lifted siphons are created, an interesting inspiration for the speleo-divers.
The greatest abundance of the water in the chimneys was seen at Peje Baths. After more intensive rain at the surface, which appeared in the cave as a sudden inflow after several tens of hours, here the flow reached 20 l/s. (The inflows from 5 to 10 l/s then appeared also in the other parts of the cave). If we consider that in the main river there was about 40 times more water, it is quite possible, that the source of the underground water flow of this cave forms several tens (!!) of chimney branches, the exploration of which can bring tens of kilometres of new spaces. It is therefore only up to the determination of the explorers, which will decide to overcome surely 100 meters long and maybe 25 meters deep final siphon of the main underground river, whether the unique karst system here will be revealed, with the theoretical amplitude of the drainage surpass is perhaps more than 1500 m.
In a way this cave is an analogy of the deep alpine systems-just this one is known from the bottom, from the offspring.

Acknowledgement:
Our sincere thanks belongs mainly to our friends, cavers from the Kosovian town Peje, speleo association Aragonit, to Mr Afrim Kelmendi and Mr Agim Mala, who prepared for us unbelievable background, arranged the living, food transport up to the plateaus, or whatever they saw in our eyes.

LITERATURE:
Gliviak J.-Smida B.- Megela M.-2004:
Potapanie v jaskyni VELIKA KLISURA. Spravodaj SSS,35,1,Slovenska Speleologicka spolocnost, Liptovsky Mikulas.
Szunyog J.-2004:Jesenna expedicia do KOSOVA a jaskyne VELIKA KLISURA v roku2003. Spravodaj SSS,35,1, Slovenska Speleologicka Spolecnost, Liptovsky Mikulas.
Smida B.-Smoll J.-1997:Nove objavy v jaskyni VELIKA KLISURA (PROKLETIJE-KOSOVO)v roku 1996. Speleoforum,16,Ceska Speleologicka Spolecnost(PRAHA,47).
Smida B.-Smoll J.-1998: VELIKA KLISURA '97. Speleoforum.17,CSS-PRAHA,44-46.
Smoll J.-1995: PROKLETIJE -Prekliate Vrchy. Spravodaj SSS,26,4,Slovenska speleologicka spolecnost, Liptovsky Mikulas,19-21.
Smoll J.-1996: PROKLETIJE, jaskyna VELIKA KLISURA. Speleoforum,15 CSS-PRAHA,32-33.
Smoll J.-2003: VELIKA KLISURA-KOSOVA, marec-2003. Spravodaj SSS,34,3,SSS-Liptovsky M. 35-36.
Smoll J.-2003: Kratka sprava z vyskumu jaskyne VELIKA KLISURA v KOSOVO, november 2003. Spravodaj SSS,34,4, SSS, Liptovsky M. 47.
Smoll J.-2004: Strucny prehlad predchadzajucich 20 vyprav na BALKAN.Spravodaj SSS,35,3,SSS Liptovsky Mikulas,37,38.
Smoll J.-2005: VELIKA KLISURA-Februar-2005: 10KM? Spravodaj SSS,27,3.
Smoll J.-Smida B.-1997: VELIKA KLISURA CAVE(KOSOVO)-7KM of length, 216m of amplitude. Bulletin of the SSS,28,2,Liptovsky Mikulas,23-24.
Vajs J.-1992: Cesta nametov.Spravodaj SSS,23,2, SSS, Liptovsky M,24-26.

You can now view a digital-map of the cave at the following web-address: www.klisura.speleo.sk