Malaysia Cave World Heritage
Clearwater Cave
109 km of galleries.
Calistemon · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 67 m.
The real relief above Clearwater 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.
109km
Galleries
surveyed length (Wikidata)
67m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
26°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
329m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
26 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 26 °C here, in January and in August. The best months to escape the heat are all year round.
- 29°23°Jan
- 30°23°Feb
- 30°23°Mar
- 30°24°Apr
- 30°24°May
- 29°24°Jun
- 29°23°Jul
- 30°23°Aug
- 30°23°Sep
- 29°23°Oct
- 29°23°Nov
- 29°23°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 system in Malaysia
Clearwater Cave is a cave in Malaysia. It has 109 km of surveyed galleries. The entrance is at 67 m. It has several entrances and long galleries. It lies within Gunung Mulu National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Wildlife Observation Shelternearest viewpoint · 3.1 km from the entrance
- Mulu Airport (MZV)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 3 km in a straight lineCar hire at BKI airport (Kota Kinabalu)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.
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.
- 9other cave entrances within 3 kmGua Air Jernih, Gua Angin, Gua Langang and 6 more
- 2viewpoints within 3 kmTree Top Tower, Wildlife Observation Shelter
- 1named waterfalls within 4 kmPaku Waterfall
- 3information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 3campsites within 8 kmCamp 2, Camp 1, Camp 3
- 44hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmA. A Homestay, Mulu Homestay, Buduk Ubong and 41 more
- 6restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- car parks within 2 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).
In our other atlases
What else is around Clearwater 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.
Figures 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 | 29 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 29 | 29 | 30 | 30 | 29 | 29 | 29 |
| Afternoon | 29 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 29 | 29 | 30 | 30 | 29 | 29 | 29 |
| Night | 23 | 23 | 23 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 23 | 23 | 23 | 23 | 23 | 23 |
| Rain (mm) | 296 | 165 | 172 | 228 | 239 | 231 | 218 | 207 | 221 | 285 | 297 | 319 |
| Rainy days | 22 | 18 | 20 | 24 | 24 | 22 | 21 | 21 | 23 | 27 | 27 | 28 |
| Sun hours/day | 5.3 | 5.8 | 6.0 | 6.2 | 6.3 | 6.4 | 6.3 | 6.2 | 5.8 | 5.3 | 5.6 | 5.5 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 29 | 29 | 23 | 296 | 5.3 |
| Feb | 30 | 30 | 23 | 165 | 5.8 |
| Mar | 30 | 30 | 23 | 172 | 6.0 |
| Apr | 30 | 30 | 24 | 228 | 6.2 |
| May | 30 | 30 | 24 | 239 | 6.3 |
| Jun | 29 | 29 | 24 | 231 | 6.4 |
| Jul | 29 | 29 | 23 | 218 | 6.3 |
| Aug | 30 | 30 | 23 | 207 | 6.2 |
| Sep | 30 | 30 | 23 | 221 | 5.8 |
| Oct | 29 | 29 | 23 | 285 | 5.3 |
| Nov | 29 | 29 | 23 | 297 | 5.6 |
| Dec | 29 | 29 | 23 | 319 | 5.5 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (67 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 | 40% | 123% | 193% | 74% | 95% | 121% | 169% | 106% | 109% | 121% | 98% | 89% |
| 2021 | 165% | 103% | 89% | 43% | 166% | 81% | 108% | 186% | 140% | 83% | 84% | 74% |
| 2022 | 103% | 121% | 193% | 99% | 118% | 109% | 147% | 109% | 180% | 122% | 96% | 88% |
| 2023 | 89% | 131% | 105% | 43% | 65% | 110% | 166% | 79% | 208% | 68% | 95% | 117% |
| 2024 | 66% | 61% | 42% | 82% | 179% | 161% | 108% | 180% | 125% | 110% | 106% | 119% |
| 2025 | 192% | 211% | 160% | 116% | 66% | 85% | 96% | 225% | 212% | 113% | 118% | 151% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q18210406) · 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 |
| 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.



