Juan Pablo Olmo from málaga, spain · CC BY 2.0
The descent
The entrance, at 1,071 m.
The real relief above Cueva del Boquete de Zafarraya, 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.
1,071m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
13°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
249m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
13 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 13 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 30 °C at the entrance, 17 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from July to August.
- 9°0°Jan
- 10°0°Feb
- 13°3°Mar
- 16°5°Apr
- 20°8°May
- 26°13°Jun
- 30°15°Jul
- 29°16°Aug
- 24°13°Sep
- 19°9°Oct
- 13°4°Nov
- 10°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 in Alcaucín, Spain
Cueva del Boquete de Zafarraya is a cave in Spain. The entrance is at 1,071 m.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Zafarrayanearest town · 3.1 km in a straight line
- Mirador Tajo de la 'U'nearest viewpoint · 0.2 km from the entrance
- F.G.L. Airport Granada-Jaén Airport (GRX)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 41 km in a straight lineCar hire at GRX airport (Granada)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.
- 1other cave entrances within 3 kmCueva Orea
- 1springs within 2 kmFuente de las Puertas
- 6viewpoints within 3 kmLa Tapia, Mirador El Boquete, Mirador Tajo de la 'U' and 3 more
- 5marked hiking routes within 3 kmAndalucía - South Route (Provincia de Málaga), Andalucía - South Route (Provincia de Granada), Ruta de la Sierra and 2 more
- 3car parks within 2 km
- 2information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 1bus stops within 2 km
- 4campsites within 8 kmLa Alcausa, CP Periana New Place Feb 2026 Not ready and 2 more
- 10hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmLas Mayorales, El Refugion, Alojamientos Huétor and 7 more
- 6restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 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
- Zafarraya3.1 km in a straight line
- Alcaucín5.5 km in a straight line
- Periana6.2 km in a straight line
- Canillas de Aceituno9.6 km in a straight line
- Viñuela9.9 km in a straight line
- Alfarnate13 km in a straight line
- Alfarnatejo13 km in a straight line
- Alhama de Granada14 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Cueva del Boquete de Zafarraya.
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 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 20 | 26 | 30 | 29 | 24 | 19 | 13 | 10 |
| Afternoon | 9 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 20 | 26 | 30 | 29 | 24 | 19 | 13 | 10 |
| Night | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 15 | 16 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 1 |
| Rain (mm) | 48 | 50 | 66 | 48 | 26 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 28 | 59 | 72 | 65 |
| Rainy days | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Sun hours/day | 5.8 | 6.4 | 7.4 | 8.4 | 10.3 | 12.3 | 12.9 | 11.7 | 9.2 | 7.3 | 6.0 | 5.6 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 9 | 9 | 0 | 48 | 5.8 |
| Feb | 10 | 10 | 0 | 50 | 6.4 |
| Mar | 13 | 13 | 3 | 66 | 7.4 |
| Apr | 16 | 16 | 5 | 48 | 8.4 |
| May | 20 | 20 | 8 | 26 | 10.3 |
| Jun | 26 | 26 | 13 | 3 | 12.3 |
| Jul | 30 | 30 | 15 | 1 | 12.9 |
| Aug | 29 | 29 | 16 | 3 | 11.7 |
| Sep | 24 | 24 | 13 | 28 | 9.2 |
| Oct | 19 | 19 | 9 | 59 | 7.3 |
| Nov | 13 | 13 | 4 | 72 | 6.0 |
| Dec | 10 | 10 | 1 | 65 | 5.6 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (1,071 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 | 166% | 3% | 118% | 114% | 206% | — | — | — | 34% | 51% | 110% | 39% |
| 2021 | 215% | 67% | 33% | 101% | 104% | — | — | — | 52% | 16% | 37% | 74% |
| 2022 | 14% | 15% | 219% | 122% | 41% | — | — | — | 38% | 11% | 26% | 177% |
| 2023 | 36% | 52% | 14% | 1% | 202% | — | — | — | 70% | 81% | 6% | 28% |
| 2024 | 68% | 126% | 228% | 37% | 19% | — | — | — | 33% | 188% | 93% | 34% |
| 2025 | 92% | 76% | 300% | 70% | 48% | — | — | — | 25% | 56% | 100% | 133% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q5794250) · 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.



