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In the Hintóvölgy border of Bogács, there is a beehive stone with five compartments. Beehive stones can also be found in good numbers in the neighboring villages. In most cases, they are remarkably regular rhyolite tufa niches.
Different opinions have emerged regarding their purpose. Gyula Bartos, the archivist of the Eger Chapter, who first described the beehive stones, was of the opinion that in all probability the urns containing the ashes of the cremated dead of a tribe of Celtic origin who lived here in the late Iron Age were placed in the niches.
The Bükkalja area has been inhabited for a long time, as evidenced by the 60,000-70,000-year-old Neanderthal artifacts found in the Suba-lyuk cave on the border of Cserépfalu.
But perhaps the first serious, clearly visible trace that has survived to this day was probably left by the unknown population that appeared here during the early migration period, who carved around 473 rock niches into the 72 rhyolite tufa towers of Bükkalja. These rock formations representing special geological and archaeological-ethnographic values are the hive stones.
The Bükkalja hills can rightly be called the “land of beehive stones”, since more than two-thirds of the beehive stones in Hungary are found here.
Beehive stones were created by nature and man together. The geological processes that shape the surface, the gullies deep into the tuff surface, carved the hillsides into rocky ridges and separate towers, and created tuff cones protruding from the ground level.
The people of later ages carved niches into these tufa formations: this is how the beehive stones were created. The niches are located on the sides of the beehive stones and are reminiscent of blind windows that taper upwards and are mostly vaulted. Even today, opinions are divided about the purpose of the booths. Folk tradition does not keep a single memory of them, and in fact, they have different names for each settlement: köpüskő, window stone, blind window stone, idol stone. Some rocks are known as Devil’s Tower, Nagybászék, Nyerges, Kecskekő, Ablakoskő, Királyszéke, Kősárkány.
The name hive stone became common in the 20th century, even though the people originally only called them that way in Szomolya. The popular memory is also divided as to their purpose: according to the traditions around Eger, the ashes of the fallen leaders of the pagan rebellions of St. Stephen’s time were placed in the niches, but according to another oral tradition, they were used for beekeeping in Turkish times.
Not only the niches are the only carved creations of these rock towers: not on top of a rock cone, we can find interesting bowl-like depressions with drainage channels, which are very similar to the sacrificial rock altars of other cultures.