Russia Cave with prehistoric art World Heritage
Kapova Cave
3.0 km of galleries.
Элиза Азатовна Мусина · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 302 m.
The real relief above Kapova 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.
3.0km
Galleries
surveyed length (Wikidata)
302m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
3°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
257m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
3 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 3 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 27 °C at the entrance, 23 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- -11°-18°Jan
- -9°-17°Feb
- -2°-10°Mar
- 8°-1°Apr
- 19°7°May
- 23°12°Jun
- 27°15°Jul
- 26°13°Aug
- 18°7°Sep
- 8°0°Oct
- -2°-8°Nov
- -9°-16°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 Bashkortostan, Russia
Kapova Cave is a cave with prehistoric art in Russia. It has 3.0 km of surveyed galleries. The entrance is at 302 m. It has an underground river. 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.
- Тирментауnearest viewpoint · 0.4 km from the entrance
- Magnitogorsk International Airport (MQF)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 119 km in a straight line
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.
The water
The the river runs highest from April to June.
The the river carries about 67 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from April to June, fed by melting snow. It is lowest from August to September and from December to March.
- 18 m³/sJan
- 6.6 m³/sFeb
- 61 m³/sMar
- 280 m³/sApr
- 316 m³/sMay
- 254 m³/sJun
- 101 m³/sJul
- 54 m³/sAug
- 57 m³/sSep
- 73 m³/sOct
- 74 m³/sNov
- 50 m³/sDec
From about 6.6 m³/s in the lowest month to 316 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 9,032 km².
Follow the Belaya from source to mouth on Riveryas
Estimate: long-term flow from the HydroATLAS model (WaterGAP, 1971–2000) shaped by the monthly rain, snow and temperature of the area (NASA POWER). Dams change it. Not a forecast.
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 kmКапова пещера, Грот «Спящий мамонт», Пещера Космонавтов
- 3springs within 2 km
- 3viewpoints within 3 kmТирментау
- 3marked hiking routes within 3 kmБольшая уральская тропа, Южноуральская тропа - участок Бурзян, Южноуральская тропа - Путь к Юрматы
- 4car parks within 2 km
- 5information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 16campsites within 8 kmАнтонова Скала, Акбузат and 14 more
- 2hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmАкбулат, Акбузат
- 5restaurants 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).
In our other atlases
What else is around Kapova 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.
Riveryas2 rivers at the entranceFigures 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 | -11 | -9 | -2 | 8 | 19 | 23 | 27 | 26 | 18 | 8 | -2 | -9 |
| Afternoon | -11 | -9 | -2 | 8 | 19 | 23 | 27 | 26 | 18 | 8 | -2 | -9 |
| Night | -18 | -17 | -10 | -1 | 7 | 12 | 15 | 13 | 7 | 0 | -8 | -16 |
| Rain (mm) | 40 | 38 | 50 | 48 | 54 | 51 | 48 | 46 | 44 | 57 | 53 | 40 |
| Rainy days | 12 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Sun hours/day | 3.0 | 4.8 | 6.3 | 7.3 | 8.2 | 9.2 | 9.0 | 7.1 | 5.1 | 2.5 | 1.2 | 2.2 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 45 | 54 | 55 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 19 | 29 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | -11 | -11 | -18 | 40 | 3.0 |
| Feb | -9 | -9 | -17 | 38 | 4.8 |
| Mar | -2 | -2 | -10 | 50 | 6.3 |
| Apr | 8 | 8 | -1 | 48 | 7.3 |
| May | 19 | 19 | 7 | 54 | 8.2 |
| Jun | 23 | 23 | 12 | 51 | 9.2 |
| Jul | 27 | 27 | 15 | 48 | 9.0 |
| Aug | 26 | 26 | 13 | 46 | 7.1 |
| Sep | 18 | 18 | 7 | 44 | 5.1 |
| Oct | 8 | 8 | 0 | 57 | 2.5 |
| Nov | -2 | -2 | -8 | 53 | 1.2 |
| Dec | -9 | -9 | -16 | 40 | 2.2 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (302 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 | 174% | 160% | 76% | 120% | 88% | 56% | 218% | 101% | 79% | 74% | 50% | 34% |
| 2021 | 119% | 150% | 112% | 58% | 12% | 89% | 70% | 6% | 101% | 74% | 93% | 145% |
| 2022 | 130% | 105% | 86% | 71% | 223% | 142% | 82% | 15% | 137% | 110% | 190% | 71% |
| 2023 | 80% | 103% | 96% | 32% | 58% | 111% | 125% | 85% | 179% | 251% | 152% | 181% |
| 2024 | 141% | 101% | 49% | 143% | 133% | 357% | 393% | 339% | 23% | 38% | 103% | 104% |
| 2025 | 130% | 50% | 121% | 133% | 157% | 202% | 131% | 124% | 45% | 86% | 97% | 126% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Kapova Cave
Russia
- —Depth
- 3.0 kmGalleries
- 302 mEntrance altitude
- 3 °CInside, all year
Propaschaya yama
Russia · 10 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 404 mEntrance altitude
- 3 °CInside, all year
Sumgan-Kutuk
Russia · 21 km
- —Depth
- 9.9 kmGalleries
- 378 mEntrance altitude
- 3 °CInside, all year
Salavat Yulayev Cave
Russia · 68 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 230 mEntrance altitude
- 4 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q1643788) · 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 |
| River flow and basin | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| 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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