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Škocjan Caves

The cave atlas

Go underground.

Every cave, cavern and abyss with its real depth and length, the rock above it, the temperature inside all year and how to visit.

The deepestTypes of caveMap

Škocjan Caves · Lander at Slovenian Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

3,077caves known
1,398full guides
132countries
7languages

The descent

Scroll down. One pixel is one metre.

The deepest caves hang at their real depth below the entrance. Keep scrolling: the meter counts the metres.

−250 m−500 m−750 m−1,000 m−1,250 m−1,500 m−1,750 m−2,000 mEiffel Tower 330 mEmpire State Building 443 mBurj Khalifa 828 mWild LakeSlovenia−160 mDzudzuana caveGeorgia−160 mNew Athos CaveGeorgia−183 mFoiba of BasovizzaItaly−228 mVrelo CaveNorth Macedonia−230 mLokvarka CaveCroatia−275 mDağlı Kuylucu CaveTurkey−279 mLezetxikiSpain−345 mRaychova dupkaBulgaria−377 mTaam ja’ Blue HoleMexico−420 mHranice AbyssCzechia−520 mParaw CaveIran−751 mSkalarjevo breznoSlovenia−1,209 mSarma caveGeorgia−1,830 mKrubera CaveGeorgia−2,199 mVeryovkina CaveGeorgia−2,212 m

2,212 m below the entrance: as deep as anyone has been inside the rock.

Eleven kinds of underground

Pick your darkness.

Rivers and lakes underground, ice that never melts, tubes left by lava, abysses, sea caves, and caves you can only see in pictures.

Show cavesOpen to visitors, with paths, lights and guided tours.404 cavesStalactite cavesStalactites, stalagmites and columns, drop by drop.401 cavesUnderground riversWhere a river goes in, comes out or runs inside.230 cavesUnderground lakesLakes in the dark, cenotes and blue holes.22 cavesCave systemsMany entrances, kilometres of galleries.94 cavesAbysses and shaftsVertical shafts that drop hundreds of metres.57 cavesSea cavesCarved by the waves, reached by boat or at low tide.44 cavesIce cavesIce that stays all year, even in summer.13 cavesLava tubesTunnels left by rivers of lava.35 cavesProtected cavesToo fragile to visit: science and replicas only.98 cavesPrehistoric artPainted and engraved tens of thousands of years ago.113 caves
Cave of AltamiraSpain

Cave of Altamira

SpainPleasant outside from June to July and in September.See the guide
LascauxFrance

Lascaux

FrancePleasant outside in May and in October.See the guideCueva de las ManosArgentina

Cueva de las Manos

ArgentinaPleasant outside from December to February.See the guide

More to explore.

Chauvet CaveFranceFranceWorld HeritageThien Duong CaveVietnamVietnam2,199 mKrubera CaveGeorgiaGeorgiaKapova CaveRussiaRussia3.0 km · World Heritage

Escape the heat

Cool caves for July

When it is 27 °C or more outside, a cave is the coolest place around. These are the caves where that happens this month.

Son Doong CaveVietnamVietnamLascauxFranceFranceWorld HeritageChauvet CaveFranceFranceWorld Heritage124 mGreat Blue HoleBelizeBelizeWorld HeritageThien Duong CaveVietnamVietnam56 mMagura CaveBulgariaBulgaria2.5 kmHiraSaudi ArabiaSaudi ArabiaVjetrenicaBosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and HerzegovinaWorld Heritage

All the cool caves for July

The longest

Hundreds of kilometres in the dark.

The longest caves by surveyed length: every passage that cavers have mapped.

1Mammoth CaveUnited States644 km2Optymistychna CaveUkraine265 km3Clearwater CaveMalaysia109 km4Zolushka/Emil Racoviță caveMoldova91 km5Baradla caveHungary26 km6Santo Tomás CaveCuba25 km7Jaskinia Wielka ŚnieżnaPoland24 km8Riesending caveGermany20 km

All the longest caves

World Heritage

Caves the world agreed to keep.

Caves that are, or lie within, UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Cave of AltamiraSpainSpainWorld HeritageLascauxFranceFranceWorld HeritageŠkocjan CavesSloveniaSlovenia6.2 km · World HeritageCueva de las ManosArgentinaArgentinaWorld HeritageChauvet CaveFranceFranceWorld Heritage124 mGreat Blue HoleBelizeBelizeWorld HeritageKapova CaveRussiaRussia3.0 km · World HeritageGorham's CaveUnited KingdomUnited KingdomWorld Heritage

By country

Where the caves are.

Spain115France103United States99India56Italy53Germany50Greece42Turkey39United Kingdom38Russia32China29Georgia26Bulgaria25Iran25Mexico25Slovakia25Austria24Croatia23Israel22Czechia21Brazil19Australia17Japan17New Zealand17All countries

Where the numbers come from

Measured, not guessed.

Every number on Cavernyas comes from a public, citable dataset. Depth and length are those published by the people who explored each cave; the relief above is measured on the European relief model. Nothing is invented.

All the sources and licences

  • Wikidatanames, types, published depth and length, visitors
  • Copernicus DEMthe relief above the cave and the entrance altitude
  • NASA POWERtemperature, rain and sun, 1991–2020
  • OpenStreetMapentrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours, trails
  • Wikimedia Commonsphotographs, each with its author and licence

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Visit mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Visit islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit
cavesCavernyasEvery cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.You are here
dark skiesDarkskyasWhere the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Coming soonVisit
viewpointsViewyasEvery viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.Coming soonVisit
birdwatchingBirdyasEvery bird sanctuary and wetland with the species recorded month by month: who is resident, who comes for the summer, who only passes through.Coming soonVisit
forestsForestyaEvery forest with its land-cover rings, what grows and lives in it, and the best months to walk it.Coming soonVisit