Germany Kora27 · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 141 m.
The real relief above Barbarossa 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.
141m
Entrance altitude
published (Wikidata)
10°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
150m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
10 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 10 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 26 °C at the entrance, 16 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The wettest months are in July: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 3°-3°Jan
- 4°-3°Feb
- 8°0°Mar
- 15°4°Apr
- 19°8°May
- 23°12°Jun
- 26°14°Jul
- 25°14°Aug
- 20°10°Sep
- 14°5°Oct
- 8°2°Nov
- 4°-1°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
Barbarossa Cave is a show cave in Germany. The entrance is at 141 m. It has an underground river and stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsticket requiredOfficial site↗
- Bad Frankenhausennearest town · 4.9 km in a straight line
- Parking 130 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Erfurt-Weimar Airport (ERF)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 44 km in a straight lineCar hire at LEJ airport (Schkeuditz)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 Thaleber Bach runs highest from September to July.
The Thaleber Bach carries about 0.61 m³/s on average here.
- 0.7 m³/sJan
- 0.3 m³/sFeb
- 1.2 m³/sMar
- 1.0 m³/sApr
- 1.2 m³/sMay
- 0.3 m³/sJun
- 0.6 m³/sJul
- 0.3 m³/sAug
- 0.3 m³/sSep
- 0.3 m³/sOct
- 0.7 m³/sNov
- 0.3 m³/sDec
From about 0.26 m³/s in the lowest month to 1.2 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 121 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.
- 18other cave entrances within 3 kmPrinzenhöhle, Steinthalebener Diebeshöhle, Entdeckerstollen and 15 more
- 2springs within 2 kmPfanne
- 10marked hiking routes within 3 kmHauptwanderweg Eisenach – Wernigerode (blaues Andreaskreuz), Über den Thalebener Berg, Steinthaleben Kyffhäuser Tilleda and 7 more
- 4car parks within 2 km
- 20information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 9bus stops within 2 km
- 4campsites within 8 kmSeecamping Kelbra Quick-Camping, An der Kyffhäuser-Therme, Wohnwagen-Campingplatz Bad Frankenhausen and 1 more
- 34hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmGrabenmühle, Zur Quelle, Alte Hämmelei and 31 more
- 1restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 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
- Bad Frankenhausen4.9 km in a straight line
- Kelbra6.7 km in a straight line
- Berga9.1 km in a straight line
- Auleben9.3 km in a straight line
- Roßla10 km in a straight line
- Bennungen11 km in a straight line
- Sondershausen12 km in a straight line
- Görsbach12 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Barbarossa 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.
Lakeyas1 lakes within 10 km
Peakyas43 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 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 15 | 19 | 23 | 26 | 25 | 20 | 14 | 8 | 4 |
| Afternoon | 3 | 4 | 8 | 15 | 19 | 23 | 26 | 25 | 20 | 14 | 8 | 4 |
| Night | -3 | -3 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 5 | 2 | -1 |
| Rain (mm) | 47 | 33 | 42 | 34 | 65 | 56 | 76 | 60 | 54 | 47 | 50 | 50 |
| Rainy days | 12 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 13 |
| Sun hours/day | 1.1 | 2.4 | 4.0 | 6.2 | 6.6 | 7.1 | 6.7 | 6.0 | 5.0 | 3.0 | 1.2 | 0.7 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 14 | 13 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 12 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 3 | 3 | -3 | 47 | 1.1 |
| Feb | 4 | 4 | -3 | 33 | 2.4 |
| Mar | 8 | 8 | 0 | 42 | 4.0 |
| Apr | 15 | 15 | 4 | 34 | 6.2 |
| May | 19 | 19 | 8 | 65 | 6.6 |
| Jun | 23 | 23 | 12 | 56 | 7.1 |
| Jul | 26 | 26 | 14 | 76 | 6.7 |
| Aug | 25 | 25 | 14 | 60 | 6.0 |
| Sep | 20 | 20 | 10 | 54 | 5.0 |
| Oct | 14 | 14 | 5 | 47 | 3.0 |
| Nov | 8 | 8 | 2 | 50 | 1.2 |
| Dec | 4 | 4 | -1 | 50 | 0.7 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (141 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 | 48% | 195% | 76% | 27% | 71% | 131% | 48% | 143% | 76% | 133% | 18% | 63% |
| 2021 | 117% | 171% | 67% | 115% | 130% | 137% | 123% | 191% | 53% | 63% | 78% | 68% |
| 2022 | 78% | 107% | 29% | 88% | 60% | 55% | 60% | 79% | 114% | 90% | 69% | 114% |
| 2023 | 118% | 105% | 175% | 166% | 47% | 131% | 88% | 215% | 31% | 220% | 160% | 191% |
| 2024 | 114% | 227% | 100% | 121% | 149% | 137% | 109% | 106% | 146% | 133% | 93% | 87% |
| 2025 | 146% | 73% | 55% | 106% | 77% | 82% | 120% | 69% | 117% | 135% | 74% | 50% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Barbarossa Cave
Germany
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 141 mEntrance altitude
- 10 °CInside, all year
Baumann's Cave
Germany · 44 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 404 mEntrance altitude
- 8 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q153171) · 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?
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