Lyell Cave
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| Lyell Cave (Grande caverne d'Engihoul) | |
|---|---|
 Lime kiln at eastern entrance of Lyell Cave | |
| Location | Engihoul, Éhein (Engis) |
| Coordinates | 50°34′41″N 5°24′32″E / 50.57806°N 5.40889°E |
| Geology | Limestone of the Viséan |
The Lyell Cave, formerly called Grande caverne d'Engihoul, is located near the ancienne commune of Éhein, municipality of Engis, Liège Province, Belgium. It is one of many caves investigated or discovered by Philippe-Charles Schmerling, in 1831; the cave is named for a later researcher, Sir Charles Lyell, who visited the cave in 1860.
Together with the Rosée Cave, it was classified as an exceptional cultural heritage of Wallonia in July 1988, making it accessible only to scientific researchers. The cave's troglofauna includes Belgium's only cave-inhabiting beetle, Tychobythinus belgicus.
Name
Philippe-Charles Schmerling wrote of his searches in the "caves of Engihoul" in his book Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles découverts dans les cavernes de la province de Liège, which was published two years after his exploration of the place.[1]
In 1833 he met geologist Charles Lyell, who was passing through Liège, and told him of his theories about prehistoric humans. Lyell was interested enough to mention them in his Principes de géologie the following year, but without giving it the importance he would assign it later.[2]
In 1860 Lyell returned to Liège and decided to examine the "caverne d'Engihoul" with the help of the Belgian professor Constantin Malaise,[3] from the Institut agricole de l'État[4] who got him to explore a cave different from Schmerling's.
In honor of that visit, the cave was renamed "Lyell Cave" in the 20th century, from "Grande Caverne d’Engihoul" as it was called in Les Cavernes et les rivières souterraines de la Belgique by E. Van den Broeck, É.-A. Martel and Ed. Rahir.[5]
Description
According to the 1910 description, there are two entrances: the one west, marked B on the map, consists of two couloirs, one of which is closed because the quarry's explosives were stored there. The other, marked A, is in the east, at the bottom of the rocky wall of the ravine of Engihoul, 13m from the Meuse. Very narrow and difficult to enter, this passage has been widened and leveled.
From west to east, there are five halls, connected via narrow passages:
- is the deepest, 10m below the entrance, measuring 10m by 9m;
- the Hall of the moon, 8m by 3m, a name given by Doudou, because of light entering through a joint in the ceiling;
- the Hall of Nutons, 4m by 3m, part of which is the gallery containing stalactites, which rises toward the west and is obscured by concretions;
- the Hall of the Cone, 14m by 3m, named for a cone on the ceiling;
- the Grand Hall, 20m by 18m, and 4m high, with two oblique chimneys containing layers of sediment full of bones. These are most likely the remains of some sixty bears and fifty boars, which were collected there by water running through the cave.
