The Bükki Nemzeti Park (Bükk National Park) is a place where the air is pure and the trees whisper with an ancient breeze. It is a lofty plateau about a thousand feet above the rest of Hungary’s countryside, spreading over 95,775 acres. Small valleys and ridges are interspersed among crags, with some excellent rock climbing, hiking, biking and incredibly beautiful forest. Seasonal creeks and waterfalls tumble down slopes and gulleys in a terrain that is 97% wooded. It is the highest national park in the nation. But the earth is testimony to ages of turmoil. Garbonian, Permian, and Triassic layers are jumbled amidst the slate, sandstone, basaltic tuff, and volcanic garboro. Sometimes you will stumble on to the bright white stone, rhyolite-tufa. About 20 to 30 million years ago a seam opened and gave out rhyolite powder instead of magma.With time it cemented into the much harder siliceous solfatara, a bright white stone. The surface keeps changing and erosion has destroyed much of the rhyolite powder, but what remains has often formed “rhyolite babes,” naturally sculpted figures in stone. They have evoked numerous local legends and folk tales and names. “Stone Lady” near Egerszalók, joins with many cone-like “babes.” Mysterious alcoves have been carved out of the rock by human hands, a puzzle to scientists for over a century. At first they were believed to be cultic urn chambers used by a Celtic tribe thousands of years ago. Others theorized that pagan priests of some ancient tribe had secretly ensconced their gods in these hiding spaces. Fragments from 11th-century pottery led to another theory –that they were used by beekeepers. What is your theory? The soft rhyolite-tufa made it possible for the citizens of Eger and other surrounding communities to dig interconnecting cellars and tunnels. Near Noszvaj, Szomolya, Cserépfalu and Cserépfalva huge cave apartments have been found, hidden by the brick houses that were subsequently erected in front of them. Many of these old caves were used as cook shacks or storerooms. In the same manner, natural caves were often used as stables. Even today there is “Stable-Rock Cave,” also the site of a Paleolithic cave settlement. The actions of water and wind and the chemicals in the earth have produced hundreds of peculiar formations and laced the area with karst caves (at least 400 of all caves in Hungary are in the Bükk National Park). Paleontologists have found ancient fossils of international importance here. The Szeleta, Istállóskõ, Suba-hole, and the Balla-cave, among others, have been the homes of Paleolithic men and a peculiar sub-culture of advanced hunters, as evidenced by the types of arrowheads that they used, called the Szeleta. The Istvan Lápa Cave is the deepest in Hungary and even experienced cavers find the Japer Cave a risky challenge. Bükk’s flora and fauna include 90 species of nesting birds, such as hawks, imperial eagles, and Ural owls in the steppe region. The cooler Bükk slopes, rising 1,500 to 2,100 feet, have Austrian oakwood forest, threaded with fresh brooks and streams in season. On the dry, warmer slopes, steppe prairie and scrub forest may form an island with its own characteristic plant life. Above 2,100 feet, look for short-stemmed highland beechwoods. The plateau itself is primarily mountain beech, but sprinkled with Mediterranean, Illyrian and mountain plant species sprouting out of rock beds, due in part to the variations of soil and exposure of shade and sun. Hundreds of years ago, a chain of castles and fortresses dominated some of the highest mountains and ridges of Bükk. Their remains are a witness to the tortured past of the nation. Almost all were leveled in the Rákóczi War of Independence. And, while you will find various castle remains on your hikes through the area, only two remain more or less intact, both outside of the park boundary. Several narrow-gauge rail lines, leftovers from mining at the turn of the 19th century, still operate. The train at Szilvásvárad, and the Miskolc to FarkasgördõÖrvénykõ shouldn’t be missed. And, although we treat some of these separately, the most frequented areas are actually Szalajka Valley, Lillafüred, and Bankut. Bankut is a winter vacation center. There are no hotels in the park itself; most facilities are in the towns that fringe its boundary.