France Cave with prehistoric art
Cosquer Cave
16 °C inside, all year.
SiefkinDR · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 1 m.
The real relief above Cosquer 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.
1m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
16°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
268m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
16 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 16 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 26 °C at the entrance, 9 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- 12°9°Jan
- 12°8°Feb
- 14°10°Mar
- 16°12°Apr
- 19°15°May
- 23°19°Jun
- 26°22°Jul
- 26°22°Aug
- 23°19°Sep
- 20°16°Oct
- 16°13°Nov
- 13°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 France
Cosquer Cave is a cave with prehistoric art in France. The entrance is at 1 m. It has the sea at its mouth. It is closed to the public to protect it. It lies within Calanques National Park.
Getting there.
- No public accessProtected for science or for its art. Look for a replica or a visitor centre nearby.
- Sormiounearest town · 2.6 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.7 km from the entrance
- Marseille Provence Airport (MRS)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 32 km in a straight lineCar hire at MRS airport (Marignane, Bouches-du-Rhône)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 2017 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 30other cave entrances within 3 kmGouffre des Pierres Tombées, Grotte du Renard, Grotte de la Musette and 27 more
- 1sinkholes within 3 kmTrou de Madame
- 21viewpoints within 3 kmCol de la Candelle, Cap Gros, Belvédère de Sugiton and 18 more
- 23marked hiking routes within 3 kmSentier de Grande Randonnée 98 and 22 more
- 173climbing crags within 3 kmFalaise de la Voile, Bora Bora, Dalle Tarzan and 170 more
- 3car parks within 2 km
- 8information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 3campsites within 8 kmLes Cigales, Parking des Gorguettes, Camps de protection de la forêt
- 35hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmLa Girelle, Le Drip's, B&B Hôtels and 32 more
- 5restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 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
- Sormiou2.6 km in a straight line
- Les Baumettes3.7 km in a straight line
- Le Redon5.1 km in a straight line
- La Panouse6.1 km in a straight line
- Mazargues6.4 km in a straight line
- Marseille 096.7 km in a straight line
- Le Cabot6.7 km in a straight line
- La Pointe Rouge7.1 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Cosquer 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.
Peakyas12 mountains within 10 km
Coastya7 beaches within 3 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 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 19 | 23 | 26 | 26 | 23 | 20 | 16 | 13 |
| Afternoon | 12 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 19 | 23 | 26 | 26 | 23 | 20 | 16 | 13 |
| Night | 9 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 15 | 19 | 22 | 22 | 19 | 16 | 13 | 10 |
| Rain (mm) | 56 | 43 | 44 | 46 | 44 | 23 | 10 | 16 | 48 | 79 | 94 | 59 |
| Rainy days | 8 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 8 |
| Sun hours/day | 4.5 | 5.9 | 7.3 | 8.5 | 9.8 | 11.8 | 12.2 | 10.8 | 8.7 | 6.2 | 4.7 | 4.2 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 12 | 12 | 9 | 56 | 4.5 |
| Feb | 12 | 12 | 8 | 43 | 5.9 |
| Mar | 14 | 14 | 10 | 44 | 7.3 |
| Apr | 16 | 16 | 12 | 46 | 8.5 |
| May | 19 | 19 | 15 | 44 | 9.8 |
| Jun | 23 | 23 | 19 | 23 | 11.8 |
| Jul | 26 | 26 | 22 | 10 | 12.2 |
| Aug | 26 | 26 | 22 | 16 | 10.8 |
| Sep | 23 | 23 | 19 | 48 | 8.7 |
| Oct | 20 | 20 | 16 | 79 | 6.2 |
| Nov | 16 | 16 | 13 | 94 | 4.7 |
| Dec | 13 | 13 | 10 | 59 | 4.2 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (1 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 | 83% | 14% | 55% | 127% | 151% | 149% | 35% | 108% | 109% | 50% | 52% | 79% |
| 2021 | 84% | 95% | 12% | 82% | 138% | 43% | 77% | 63% | 90% | 84% | 95% | 54% |
| 2022 | 2% | 41% | 60% | 35% | 13% | 53% | 242% | 91% | 96% | 17% | 59% | 119% |
| 2023 | 23% | 48% | 36% | 19% | 85% | 138% | 94% | 121% | 66% | 71% | 32% | 47% |
| 2024 | 55% | 111% | 297% | 67% | 135% | 75% | 48% | 75% | 187% | 84% | 34% | 35% |
| 2025 | 28% | 47% | 79% | 29% | 29% | 12% | 106% | 54% | 44% | 20% | 25% | 75% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Cosquer Cave
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1 mEntrance altitude
- 16 °CInside, all year
Fontbrégoua Cave
France · 75 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 372 mEntrance altitude
- 14 °CInside, all year
Caves of Thouzon
France · 91 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 70 mEntrance altitude
- 15 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q747992) · 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
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