France Cave with prehistoric art World Heritage
Lascaux
12 °C inside, all year.
JanManu · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 197 m.
The real relief above Lascaux, 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.
197m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
12°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
45m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
12 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 12 °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°0°Jan
- 9°0°Feb
- 13°3°Mar
- 17°6°Apr
- 20°9°May
- 25°14°Jun
- 28°15°Jul
- 28°15°Aug
- 24°12°Sep
- 19°8°Oct
- 12°4°Nov
- 8°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 southwestern France famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings
Lascaux is a cave with prehistoric art in France. The entrance is at 197 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.
- Montignacnearest town · 1.6 km in a straight line
- Brive Souillac airport (BVE)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 25 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.
- 1other cave entrances within 3 kmGrotte de Lascaux
- 5marked hiking routes within 3 kmDe la Manche aux Pyrénées 16, Champcevinel - Les Eyzies-de-Taillac, Boucle des Châteaux, Boucle du Bois de la Saladie (version longue) and 2 more
- 37car parks within 2 km
- 3information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 15campsites within 8 kmLa Bouquerie, Camping Le Sorbier, Castines Cyclo and 12 more
- 38hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmHôtel du Parc, Moulin de la Mailleraie, Hôtel Archambeau and 35 more
- 15restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints within 3 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
- Montignac1.6 km in a straight line
- Le Lardin-Saint-Lazare9.5 km in a straight line
- Thenon12 km in a straight line
- Terrasson-Lavilledieu13 km in a straight line
- Cublac15 km in a straight line
- Salignac-Eyvigues15 km in a straight line
- Rouffignac-Saint-Cernin-de-Reilhac16 km in a straight line
- Sarlat-la-Canéda19 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 | 9 | 13 | 17 | 20 | 25 | 28 | 28 | 24 | 19 | 12 | 8 |
| Afternoon | 8 | 9 | 13 | 17 | 20 | 25 | 28 | 28 | 24 | 19 | 12 | 8 |
| Night | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 1 |
| Rain (mm) | 73 | 51 | 68 | 76 | 82 | 67 | 52 | 56 | 52 | 66 | 74 | 71 |
| Rainy days | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 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 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 8 | 8 | 0 | 73 | 2.5 |
| Feb | 9 | 9 | 0 | 51 | 4.1 |
| Mar | 13 | 13 | 3 | 68 | 5.3 |
| Apr | 17 | 17 | 6 | 76 | 6.4 |
| May | 20 | 20 | 9 | 82 | 7.0 |
| Jun | 25 | 25 | 14 | 67 | 8.7 |
| Jul | 28 | 28 | 15 | 52 | 8.9 |
| Aug | 28 | 28 | 15 | 56 | 8.1 |
| Sep | 24 | 24 | 12 | 52 | 7.2 |
| Oct | 19 | 19 | 8 | 66 | 4.9 |
| Nov | 12 | 12 | 4 | 74 | 3.1 |
| Dec | 8 | 8 | 1 | 71 | 2.6 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (197 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Caves nearby.
Lascaux
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 197 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Font-de-Gaume cave
France · 17 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 91 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Rouffignac Cave
France · 15 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 244 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Les Combarelles
France · 16 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 106 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q172125) · 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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