France Show cave World Heritage
Font-de-Gaume cave
13 °C inside, all year.
Traumrune · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 91 m.
The real relief above Font-de-Gaume 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.
91m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
13°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
144m
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 August the afternoon reaches 28 °C at the entrance, 15 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from July to August.
- 8°1°Jan
- 10°1°Feb
- 14°4°Mar
- 18°7°Apr
- 21°10°May
- 26°14°Jun
- 28°16°Jul
- 28°16°Aug
- 25°12°Sep
- 20°9°Oct
- 13°5°Nov
- 9°2°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.
Show cave with prehistoric art
Font-de-Gaume cave is a show cave in France. The entrance is at 91 m. It has stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsUsually with a guided tour; check times and tickets on the official site.
- Saint-Cypriennearest town · 7.3 km in a straight line
- Parking 330 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Point de vue sur la Madeleinenearest viewpoint · 2.6 km from the entrance
- Brive Souillac airport (BVE)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 38 km in a straight lineCar hire at BVE airport (Brive)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.
- 15other cave entrances within 3 kmGrotte du Grand Roc, Site de Laugerie-Basse, Abri du Poisson and 12 more
- 2springs within 2 km
- 1viewpoints within 3 kmPoint de vue sur la Madeleine
- 5marked hiking routes within 3 kmDe la Manche aux Pyrénées 17, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac - Cahors, De la Manche aux Pyrénées 16, Champcevinel - Les Eyzies-de-Taillac, Boucle de la Mouthe and 2 more
- 15car parks within 2 km
- 5information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 25campsites within 8 kmCamping Le Vézère Périgord, Le Val de la Marquise, Camping Toohapi Le Mas and 22 more
- 32hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmB&B Ferme de Tayac, Hôtel de la Beune, Hôtel Les Falaises and 29 more
- 20restaurants 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
- 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
- Saint-Cyprien7.3 km in a straight line
- Le Bugue8.2 km in a straight line
- Le Buisson-de-Cadouin13 km in a straight line
- Rouffignac-Saint-Cernin-de-Reilhac14 km in a straight line
- Sarlat-la-Canéda16 km in a straight line
- Belvès18 km in a straight line
- Montignac18 km in a straight line
- Cénac20 km in a straight line
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 8 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 21 | 26 | 28 | 28 | 25 | 20 | 13 | 9 |
| Afternoon | 8 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 21 | 26 | 28 | 28 | 25 | 20 | 13 | 9 |
| Night | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 10 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 12 | 9 | 5 | 2 |
| Rain (mm) | 73 | 51 | 68 | 76 | 82 | 67 | 52 | 56 | 52 | 66 | 74 | 71 |
| Rainy days | 12 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 13 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.5 | 4.1 | 5.3 | 6.4 | 7.0 | 8.7 | 8.9 | 8.1 | 7.2 | 4.9 | 3.1 | 2.6 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 6 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 8 | 8 | 1 | 73 | 2.5 |
| Feb | 10 | 10 | 1 | 51 | 4.1 |
| Mar | 14 | 14 | 4 | 68 | 5.3 |
| Apr | 18 | 18 | 7 | 76 | 6.4 |
| May | 21 | 21 | 10 | 82 | 7.0 |
| Jun | 26 | 26 | 14 | 67 | 8.7 |
| Jul | 28 | 28 | 16 | 52 | 8.9 |
| Aug | 28 | 28 | 16 | 56 | 8.1 |
| Sep | 25 | 25 | 12 | 52 | 7.2 |
| Oct | 20 | 20 | 9 | 66 | 4.9 |
| Nov | 13 | 13 | 5 | 74 | 3.1 |
| Dec | 9 | 9 | 2 | 71 | 2.6 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (91 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 | 61% | 94% | 98% | 70% | 80% | 121% | 11% | 109% | 117% | 191% | 32% | 199% |
| 2021 | 106% | 127% | 33% | 36% | 118% | 195% | 108% | 43% | 185% | 60% | 57% | 144% |
| 2022 | 40% | 60% | 68% | 79% | 30% | 170% | 11% | 60% | 93% | 39% | 101% | 75% |
| 2023 | 75% | 29% | 102% | 79% | 69% | 143% | 57% | 86% | 71% | 148% | 193% | 164% |
| 2024 | 67% | 185% | 184% | 90% | 175% | 121% | 70% | 27% | 228% | 155% | 57% | 68% |
| 2025 | 84% | 32% | 36% | 59% | 23% | 73% | 18% | 38% | 56% | 49% | 50% | 33% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Font-de-Gaume cave
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 91 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Les Combarelles
France · 1 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 106 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Abri de la Madeleine
France · 4 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 78 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q914743) · 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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