Egypt Cave with prehistoric art
Cave of Swimmers
22 °C inside, all year.
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data), CC BY 4.0, with relief shading from Copernicus WorldDEM-30
The descent
The entrance, at 620 m.
The real relief above Cave of Swimmers, 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.
620m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
22°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
231m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
22 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 22 °C here, in January and in August. In June the afternoon reaches 38 °C at the entrance, 16 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from March to October.
- 19°4°Jan
- 22°6°Feb
- 27°10°Mar
- 32°15°Apr
- 36°19°May
- 38°22°Jun
- 38°22°Jul
- 38°23°Aug
- 36°20°Sep
- 31°16°Oct
- 25°10°Nov
- 20°5°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 ancient rock art in Egypt
Cave of Swimmers is a cave with prehistoric art in Egypt. The entrance is at 620 m. It is closed to the public to protect it.
Getting there.
- No public accessProtected for science or for its art. Look for a replica or a visitor centre nearby.
- Kufra Airport (AKF)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 206 km in a straight lineCar hire in LuxorDiscover 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.
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 kmCave of Swimmers
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints within 3 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- car parks within 2 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- campsites within 8 km
- hotels and guesthouses within 8 km
- restaurants and cafés 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).
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 19 | 22 | 27 | 32 | 36 | 38 | 38 | 38 | 36 | 31 | 25 | 20 |
| Afternoon | 19 | 22 | 27 | 32 | 36 | 38 | 38 | 38 | 36 | 31 | 25 | 20 |
| Night | 4 | 6 | 10 | 15 | 19 | 22 | 22 | 23 | 20 | 16 | 10 | 5 |
| Rain (mm) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rainy days | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sun hours/day | 9.7 | 10.3 | 11.0 | 11.7 | 12.3 | 13.0 | 12.9 | 12.3 | 11.7 | 10.7 | 10.0 | 9.5 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 19 | 19 | 4 | 0 | 9.7 |
| Feb | 22 | 22 | 6 | 0 | 10.3 |
| Mar | 27 | 27 | 10 | 0 | 11.0 |
| Apr | 32 | 32 | 15 | 0 | 11.7 |
| May | 36 | 36 | 19 | 0 | 12.3 |
| Jun | 38 | 38 | 22 | 0 | 13.0 |
| Jul | 38 | 38 | 22 | 0 | 12.9 |
| Aug | 38 | 38 | 23 | 0 | 12.3 |
| Sep | 36 | 36 | 20 | 0 | 11.7 |
| Oct | 31 | 31 | 16 | 0 | 10.7 |
| Nov | 25 | 25 | 10 | 0 | 10.0 |
| Dec | 20 | 20 | 5 | 0 | 9.5 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (620 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
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 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2021 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2022 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2023 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2024 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2025 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Cave of Swimmers
Egypt
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 620 mEntrance altitude
- 22 °CInside, all year
Cave of the Beasts
Egypt · 10 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 679 mEntrance altitude
- 22 °CInside, all year
Magharet el-Qantara
Egypt · 103 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 978 mEntrance altitude
- 20 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q647757) · 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 |
| 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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