Israel חובב אפלולית · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 52 m.
The real relief above Ayalon Cave, 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.
2.5km
Galleries
surveyed length (Wikidata)
52m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
21°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
111m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
21 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 21 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 34 °C at the entrance, 13 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from May to October. The wettest months are from November to February: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 17°8°Jan
- 19°9°Feb
- 22°11°Mar
- 25°13°Apr
- 30°16°May
- 33°20°Jun
- 34°22°Jul
- 34°22°Aug
- 33°21°Sep
- 30°19°Oct
- 24°14°Nov
- 20°10°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 in Israel
Ayalon Cave is a cave in Israel. It has 2.5 km of surveyed galleries. The entrance is at 52 m. It has an underground river.
Getting there.
- No public accessProtected for science or for its art. Look for a replica or a visitor centre nearby.
- Gimzonearest town · 2.4 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 1.0 km from the entrance
- Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 12 km in a straight lineCar hire at TLV airport (Tel Aviv)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 the river runs highest from January to February.
The the river carries about 1.6 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from January to February. It is lowest from April to November.
- 5.3 m³/sJan
- 4.5 m³/sFeb
- 2.6 m³/sMar
- 1.1 m³/sApr
- 0.4 m³/sMay
- 0.2 m³/sJun
- 0.1 m³/sJul
- 0.1 m³/sAug
- 0.1 m³/sSep
- 0.2 m³/sOct
- 1.3 m³/sNov
- 3.8 m³/sDec
From about 0.14 m³/s in the lowest month to 5.3 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 230 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.
- 1other cave entrances within 3 kmמערת איילון
- 7viewpoints within 3 kmחורבת רגב, מצפה חן, מצפה השניים and 4 more
- 6marked hiking routes within 3 kmשביל ישראל, שביל גולני, יער בן שמן-דרך היער הראשית and 3 more
- 2car parks within 2 km
- 7bus stops within 2 km
- 5campsites within 8 kmدار سبعي, Teen's camp site, מה"ד שלח and 2 more
- 4hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmمنزل معاذ حماد, بيت يوسف سبعي, بلال سبعي and 1 more
- 3restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 3 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
- Gimzo2.4 km in a straight line
- Bet H̱ashmonay2.5 km in a straight line
- Yad Rambam2.8 km in a straight line
- Aẖisamakh3.3 km in a straight line
- Matsliaẖ5.3 km in a straight line
- Lod5.4 km in a straight line
- Ramla6.3 km in a straight line
- Karmé Yosef6.9 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Ayalon Cave.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas1 mountains within 10 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 17 | 19 | 22 | 25 | 30 | 33 | 34 | 34 | 33 | 30 | 24 | 20 |
| Afternoon | 17 | 19 | 22 | 25 | 30 | 33 | 34 | 34 | 33 | 30 | 24 | 20 |
| Night | 8 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 16 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 21 | 19 | 14 | 10 |
| Rain (mm) | 88 | 62 | 37 | 21 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 14 | 46 | 83 |
| Rainy days | 10 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 9 |
| Sun hours/day | 5.4 | 6.1 | 8.1 | 9.4 | 11.3 | 13.0 | 12.8 | 11.8 | 10.5 | 8.5 | 6.9 | 5.6 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 17 | 17 | 8 | 88 | 5.4 |
| Feb | 19 | 19 | 9 | 62 | 6.1 |
| Mar | 22 | 22 | 11 | 37 | 8.1 |
| Apr | 25 | 25 | 13 | 21 | 9.4 |
| May | 30 | 30 | 16 | 5 | 11.3 |
| Jun | 33 | 33 | 20 | 1 | 13.0 |
| Jul | 34 | 34 | 22 | 1 | 12.8 |
| Aug | 34 | 34 | 22 | 0 | 11.8 |
| Sep | 33 | 33 | 21 | 2 | 10.5 |
| Oct | 30 | 30 | 19 | 14 | 8.5 |
| Nov | 24 | 24 | 14 | 46 | 6.9 |
| Dec | 20 | 20 | 10 | 83 | 5.6 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (52 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 | 288% | 105% | 292% | 480% | 148% | — | — | — | — | 20% | 323% | 71% |
| 2021 | 111% | 194% | 70% | 49% | 50% | — | — | — | — | 26% | 64% | 317% |
| 2022 | 265% | 144% | 315% | 3% | 12% | — | — | — | — | 42% | 132% | 81% |
| 2023 | 46% | 252% | 144% | 452% | 80% | — | — | — | — | 40% | 166% | 85% |
| 2024 | 425% | 140% | 56% | 64% | 80% | — | — | — | — | 0% | 41% | 110% |
| 2025 | 20% | 100% | 94% | 35% | 38% | — | — | — | — | 6% | 68% | 164% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Ayalon Cave
Israel
- —Depth
- 2.5 kmGalleries
- 52 mEntrance altitude
- 21 °CInside, all year
Shuqba cave
Palestine · 14 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 210 mEntrance altitude
- 20 °CInside, all year
Ha-Teomim cave
Israel · 22 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 414 mEntrance altitude
- 19 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q412008) · 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 |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
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.
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