The Silica plateau is a high, flat limestone table in the Slovak Karst, a few kilometres north of the Hungarian border, and it forms part of the same cross-border UNESCO site as the Aggtelek caves. The label points to the country around Silica and Jasov, a landscape of dry meadows and beech woods broken by sinkholes, gorges and caves, with small villages tucked in the folds. Jasov, in the valley below, has a large Premonstratensian monastery, founded in the thirteenth century, with a grand Baroque church and a cave beneath the hill that is open to visitors. Nearby is the Ochtiná Aragonite Cave, one of very few caves in the world with spiky, branching aragonite crystals.
The nature is excellent. Grazing has kept the plateau open, and in late spring the grassland is rich in orchids and other flowers. The woods hold lynx, wolves, wild boar and many birds, and the sinkholes, some of them deep, are cool, damp and full of ferns. In autumn the beech woods turn copper. The smell of damp earth and limestone fills the gorges.
Rožňava, the largest town of the area, was a mining centre for iron, silver and copper in the Middle Ages, settled by Saxon miners, and it has a cathedral, a market square and a large old town. The Krásna Hôrka castle, on a hill some distance away, is one of the best-preserved in Slovakia, and its tall tower can be seen for miles.
Riding here is a quiet pleasure. The roads wind through the hills with steady curves, climb to the plateau in a few steep bends and descend into valleys with old villages. Traffic is light, and the surface is mixed, with some rough patches. Rožňava has fuel and shops, and the smaller villages have only a pub or small store. Spring and autumn are the best seasons, and winter snow can close the plateau roads.