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Lazareva pećina

Serbia Serbia Show cave

Lazar's Cave

16 km of galleries.

Show caveStalactitesUnderground riverCave system

See the descentHow to visit

Tomaž Jančar · CC BY-SA 3.0

The descent

The entrance, at 300 m.

The real relief above Lazar's Cave, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.

depth not publishedEntrance888 m1.0 kmvertical × 3.7depth not publishedEntrance888 m1.0 kmvertical × 8.1

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.

16km

Galleries

surveyed length (Wikidata)

300m

Entrance altitude

from the 30 m relief model

11°C

Inside, all year

the yearly average outside, at the entrance

383m

Rock above

the highest point within 1.5 km

Inside and outside

11 °C inside, all year.

Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 11 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 30 °C at the entrance, 19 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from July to August. The wettest months are in May: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.

outside, at the entrance (300 m)inside
  1. 2°-5°Jan
  2. 4°-4°Feb
  3. 10°0°Mar
  4. 16°5°Apr
  5. 21°11°May
  6. 26°15°Jun
  7. 29°17°Jul
  8. 30°17°Aug
  9. 24°12°Sep
  10. 17°6°Oct
  11. 10°2°Nov
  12. 3°-3°Dec
Inside: 11 °C all yearEscape the heat: Jul–AugFrost outside: Dec–FebWettest: May

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.

Longest cave in Serbia

Lazar's Cave is a show cave in Serbia. It has 16 km of surveyed galleries. The entrance is at 300 m. It has an underground river, stalactites and stalagmites and several entrances and long galleries. It is open to visitors.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there.

  • Show cave: open to visitorsHours in OpenStreetMap: Mo-Su 09:00-16:00; Oct-Apr off · ticket required
  • Bornearest town · 12 km in a straight line
  • Parking 20 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
  • Видиковац 2nearest viewpoint · 0.7 km from the entrance
  • Niš Constantine the Great Airport (INI)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 78 km in a straight lineCar hire at INI airport (Niš)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.

The water

The the river runs highest from February to May.

The the river carries about 0.49 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from February to May.

  1. 0.6 m³/sJan
  2. 0.8 m³/sFeb
  3. 1.3 m³/sMar
  4. 1.2 m³/sApr
  5. 1.1 m³/sMay
  6. 0.8 m³/sJun
  7. 0.4 m³/sJul
  8. 0.2 m³/sAug
  9. 0.2 m³/sSep
  10. 0.5 m³/sOct
  11. 0.5 m³/sNov
  12. 0.2 m³/sDec

From about 0.17 m³/s in the lowest month to 1.3 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 133 km².

The Zlot River from source to mouth on Riveryas — coming soon

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.

The ground above Lazar's Cave (Sentinel-2) 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.

  • 5other cave entrances within 3 kmВерњикица, Лазарева пећина, Тунел „Код лепе Влајне” and 2 more
  • 3springs within 2 kmЗлотско врело
  • 3viewpoints within 3 kmВидиковац 2, Видиковац 1 Лазарев Кањон
  • 7marked hiking routes within 3 kmE4: Sikole – Sokobanja, E4: Lazarev kanjon – Gamzigrad (– Bogovina), On Tilva Njagra and 4 more
  • 2car parks within 2 km
  • 3information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
  • 9bus stops within 2 km
  • 2campsites within 8 kmБорско језеро, Kamp
  • 8hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmZiJin hotel Jezero, Etno domaćinstvo, Vertigo and 5 more
  • 2restaurants 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

  • Bor12 km in a straight line
  • Boljevac22 km in a straight line
  • Žagubica23 km in a straight line

In our other atlases

What else is around Lazar's 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.

Lakeyas1 lakes within 10 km
Bor Lake0.6 km² · 8.0 km
Peakyas17 mountains within 10 km
Kršja Satuluj432 m · volcano · 3.0 kmKovej809 m · 3.0 kmTilva Njagra770 m · 5.7 kmMalinik1,158 m · 5.8 kmTilva Gola1,000 m · 6.2 kmTilva Mošuli969 m · 7.7 kmTilva Ku Mastakana714 m · 8.2 kmTilva Besmić672 m · 8.6 km

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.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon241016212629302417103
Afternoon241016212629302417103
Night-5-405111517171262-3
Rain (mm)515256577975626054625556
Rainy days10101011131211888911
Sun hours/day2.13.44.86.57.38.59.48.76.24.73.01.8
Snow on the ground (cm)161581000001615
AfternoonAfternoonNightRain (mm)Sun hours/day
Jan22-5512.1
Feb44-4523.4
Mar10100564.8
Apr16165576.5
May212111797.3
Jun262615758.5
Jul292917629.4
Aug303017608.7
Sep242412546.2
Oct17176624.7
Nov10102553.0
Dec33-3561.8

Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (300 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.

Photographs

Inside and around.

Lazar's Cave near the town of Zlot, in the Bor municipality in eastern Serbia - 2 May 2013
Dalibor Tomic from Zajecar, Serbia · CC BY 2.0
Lazareva pećina - Zlot
Karolina Đukić · CC BY-SA 4.0
Lazareva pećina ispred ulaza
Karolina Đukić · CC BY-SA 4.0

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.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
202031%109%154%32%117%132%147%428%54%135%25%145%
2021261%41%113%83%70%54%118%45%36%127%157%180%
202278%52%41%92%53%83%72%138%155%10%177%127%
2023158%59%94%151%88%201%97%116%65%29%277%55%
202482%16%91%80%109%79%43%20%134%28%114%154%
202526%54%161%86%76%7%67%63%76%205%233%76%

130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month

Caves nearby.

Lazar's Cave

Serbia

  • —Depth
  • 16 kmGalleries
  • 300 mEntrance altitude
  • 11 °CInside, all year

Resava cave

Serbia · 27 km

  • —Depth
  • 2.3 kmGalleries
  • 480 mEntrance altitude
  • 10 °CInside, all year

See the guide

Magura Cave

Bulgaria · 62 km

  • 56 mDepth
  • 2.5 kmGalleries
  • 371 mEntrance altitude
  • 12 °CInside, all year

See the guide

Rajko's Cave

Serbia · 46 km

  • —Depth
  • —Galleries
  • 457 mEntrance altitude
  • 10 °CInside, all year

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name, type, published depth and length, visitorsWikidata (Q25048156) · CC0
The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D modelCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
River flow and basinHydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0
ClimateNASA POWER, 1991–2020
Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearbyCoastya, 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.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Visit mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Visit islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit
cavesCavernyasEvery cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.You are here
dark skiesDarkskyasWhere the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Coming soonVisit
viewpointsViewyasEvery viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.Coming soonVisit
birdwatchingBirdyasEvery bird sanctuary and wetland with the species recorded month by month: who is resident, who comes for the summer, who only passes through.Coming soonVisit
forestsForestyaEvery forest with its land-cover rings, what grows and lives in it, and the best months to walk it.Coming soonVisit