France Cave with prehistoric art World Heritage
Abri de la Madeleine
13 °C inside, all year.
Jochen Jahnke · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 78 m.
The real relief above Abri de la Madeleine, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
78m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
13°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
162m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
13 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 13 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 29 °C at the entrance, 15 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from July to August.
- 8°1°Jan
- 10°1°Feb
- 14°4°Mar
- 18°7°Apr
- 21°10°May
- 26°14°Jun
- 28°16°Jul
- 29°16°Aug
- 25°12°Sep
- 20°9°Oct
- 13°5°Nov
- 9°2°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Cave with prehistoric art in France
Abri de la Madeleine is a cave with prehistoric art in France. The entrance is at 78 m. It has an underground river. It is closed to the public to protect it. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- No public accessProtected for science or for its art. Look for a replica or a visitor centre nearby.
- Le Buguenearest town · 10 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.2 km from the entrance
- Brive Souillac airport (BVE)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 36 km in a straight lineCar hire at BVE airport (Brive)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The water
The La Vézère runs highest from November to May.
The La Vézère carries about 65 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from November to May.
- 111 m³/sJan
- 85 m³/sFeb
- 100 m³/sMar
- 102 m³/sApr
- 93 m³/sMay
- 59 m³/sJun
- 25 m³/sJul
- 17 m³/sAug
- 20 m³/sSep
- 50 m³/sOct
- 91 m³/sNov
- 108 m³/sDec
From about 17 m³/s in the lowest month to 111 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 3,357 km².
Estimate: long-term flow from the HydroATLAS model (WaterGAP, 1971–2000) shaped by the monthly rain, snow and temperature of the area (NASA POWER). Dams change it. Not a forecast.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 7other cave entrances within 3 kmGisement préhistorique de Liveyre, Abri du Poisson, Grotte des Combarelles I and 4 more
- 1springs within 2 kmSource miraculeuse
- 5viewpoints within 3 kmLa Roque Saint-Christophe, Belvédère, Point de vue sur la Madeleine and 2 more
- 4marked hiking routes within 3 kmBoucle de Lalande, Boucle de la Boissonie, De la Manche aux Pyrénées 16, Champcevinel - Les Eyzies-de-Taillac and 1 more
- 9car parks within 2 km
- 4information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 27campsites within 8 kmCamping Le Vézère Périgord, Le Val de la Marquise, Camping Toohapi Le Mas and 24 more
- 36hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmHôtel du Parc, B&B Ferme de Tayac, Moulin de la Mailleraie and 33 more
- 4restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- bus stops within 2 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Le Bugue10 km in a straight line
- Rouffignac-Saint-Cernin-de-Reilhac11 km in a straight line
- Saint-Cyprien11 km in a straight line
- Montignac15 km in a straight line
- Le Buisson-de-Cadouin16 km in a straight line
- Sarlat-la-Canéda17 km in a straight line
- Thenon19 km in a straight line
- Belvès21 km in a straight line
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 8 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 21 | 26 | 28 | 29 | 25 | 20 | 13 | 9 |
| Afternoon | 8 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 21 | 26 | 28 | 29 | 25 | 20 | 13 | 9 |
| Night | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 10 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 12 | 9 | 5 | 2 |
| Rain (mm) | 73 | 51 | 68 | 76 | 82 | 67 | 52 | 56 | 52 | 66 | 74 | 71 |
| Rainy days | 12 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 13 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.5 | 4.1 | 5.3 | 6.4 | 7.0 | 8.7 | 8.9 | 8.1 | 7.2 | 4.9 | 3.1 | 2.6 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 6 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 8 | 8 | 1 | 73 | 2.5 |
| Feb | 10 | 10 | 1 | 51 | 4.1 |
| Mar | 14 | 14 | 4 | 68 | 5.3 |
| Apr | 18 | 18 | 7 | 76 | 6.4 |
| May | 21 | 21 | 10 | 82 | 7.0 |
| Jun | 26 | 26 | 14 | 67 | 8.7 |
| Jul | 28 | 28 | 16 | 52 | 8.9 |
| Aug | 29 | 29 | 16 | 56 | 8.1 |
| Sep | 25 | 25 | 12 | 52 | 7.2 |
| Oct | 20 | 20 | 9 | 66 | 4.9 |
| Nov | 13 | 13 | 5 | 74 | 3.1 |
| Dec | 9 | 9 | 2 | 71 | 2.6 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (78 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 61% | 94% | 98% | 70% | 80% | 121% | 11% | 109% | 117% | 191% | 32% | 199% |
| 2021 | 106% | 127% | 33% | 36% | 118% | 195% | 108% | 43% | 185% | 60% | 57% | 144% |
| 2022 | 40% | 60% | 68% | 79% | 30% | 170% | 11% | 60% | 93% | 39% | 101% | 75% |
| 2023 | 75% | 29% | 102% | 79% | 69% | 143% | 57% | 86% | 71% | 148% | 193% | 164% |
| 2024 | 67% | 185% | 184% | 90% | 175% | 121% | 70% | 27% | 228% | 155% | 57% | 68% |
| 2025 | 84% | 32% | 36% | 59% | 23% | 73% | 18% | 38% | 56% | 49% | 50% | 33% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Abri de la Madeleine
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 78 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Font-de-Gaume cave
France · 4 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 91 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Les Combarelles
France · 3 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 106 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q551959) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| River flow and basin | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
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