Spain Cave with prehistoric art World Heritage
Ekain cave
15 °C inside, all year.
Txo · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 84 m.
The real relief above Ekain 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.
84m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
15°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
355m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
15 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 15 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 27 °C at the entrance, 12 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are in August.
- 12°5°Jan
- 12°5°Feb
- 15°6°Mar
- 18°9°Apr
- 21°12°May
- 25°15°Jun
- 27°16°Jul
- 27°17°Aug
- 25°15°Sep
- 21°12°Oct
- 15°8°Nov
- 12°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 cave paintings
Ekain cave is a cave with prehistoric art in Spain. The entrance is at 84 m. It is closed to the public to protect it. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- No public accessProtected for science or for its art. Look for a replica or a visitor centre nearby.
- Zestoanearest town · 1.5 km in a straight line
- San Sebastián Airport (EAS)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 41 km in a straight lineCar hire at BIO airport (Bilbao)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.
- 3other cave entrances within 3 kmEkain, Astigarraga, Erlaitz
- 1springs within 2 km
- 4marked hiking routes within 3 kmE1 Araindarri Hiru tenpluen ibilbidea: Zumaia - Loiola, Lili-Goltzibar-Zestoa, PR-Gi 202 Txakolinaren bidea and 1 more
- 1named waterfalls within 4 kmAgiretako ur-jauzia
- 7car parks within 2 km
- 11information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 7bus stops within 2 km
- 5campsites within 8 kmCamping Itziar, Itxaspe, Camping Zumaia and 2 more
- 78hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmHotel Arbe, Zumardi pentsioa, Karakas zar and 75 more
- 6restaurants 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
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
- Zestoa1.5 km in a straight line
- Aizarnazabal3.8 km in a straight line
- Azpeitia6.1 km in a straight line
- Zumaia6.7 km in a straight line
- Azkoitia7.2 km in a straight line
- Deba9.0 km in a straight line
- Mendaro9.1 km in a straight line
- Getaria9.4 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Ekain 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.
Peakyas15 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 | 12 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 21 | 25 | 27 | 27 | 25 | 21 | 15 | 12 |
| Afternoon | 12 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 21 | 25 | 27 | 27 | 25 | 21 | 15 | 12 |
| Night | 5 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 15 | 12 | 8 | 5 |
| Rain (mm) | 106 | 88 | 84 | 77 | 72 | 61 | 42 | 42 | 56 | 82 | 125 | 97 |
| Rainy days | 14 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 15 | 13 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.3 | 3.7 | 5.2 | 6.2 | 7.2 | 7.7 | 8.0 | 7.5 | 6.8 | 4.7 | 2.9 | 2.6 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 4 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 12 | 12 | 5 | 106 | 2.3 |
| Feb | 12 | 12 | 5 | 88 | 3.7 |
| Mar | 15 | 15 | 6 | 84 | 5.2 |
| Apr | 18 | 18 | 9 | 77 | 6.2 |
| May | 21 | 21 | 12 | 72 | 7.2 |
| Jun | 25 | 25 | 15 | 61 | 7.7 |
| Jul | 27 | 27 | 16 | 42 | 8.0 |
| Aug | 27 | 27 | 17 | 42 | 7.5 |
| Sep | 25 | 25 | 15 | 56 | 6.8 |
| Oct | 21 | 21 | 12 | 82 | 4.7 |
| Nov | 15 | 15 | 8 | 125 | 2.9 |
| Dec | 12 | 12 | 5 | 97 | 2.6 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (84 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 | 42% | 28% | 156% | 125% | 112% | 140% | 63% | 134% | 149% | 214% | 33% | 256% |
| 2021 | 128% | 98% | 32% | 67% | 71% | 182% | 63% | 49% | 153% | 63% | 173% | 187% |
| 2022 | 64% | 25% | 102% | 112% | 30% | 62% | 22% | 76% | 129% | 35% | 107% | 75% |
| 2023 | 164% | 53% | 30% | 42% | 74% | 127% | 58% | 99% | 150% | 88% | 110% | 84% |
| 2024 | 69% | 133% | 86% | 44% | 118% | 112% | 50% | 181% | 228% | 192% | 55% | 108% |
| 2025 | 67% | 52% | 124% | 82% | 94% | 85% | 86% | 102% | 85% | 42% | 116% | 77% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Ekain cave
Spain
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 84 mEntrance altitude
- 15 °CInside, all year
Cave of Altxerri
Spain · 12 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 27 mEntrance altitude
- 15 °CInside, all year
Santimamiñe kobazuloa
Spain · 32 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 164 mEntrance altitude
- 14 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q1414019) · 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?
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