Bulgaria Eola · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 975 m.
The real relief above Lepenitsa 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.
1.5km
Galleries
surveyed length (Wikidata)
975m
Entrance altitude
published (Wikidata)
9°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
382m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
9 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 9 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 26 °C at the entrance, 17 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- 2°-6°Jan
- 4°-4°Feb
- 8°-1°Mar
- 14°3°Apr
- 19°8°May
- 23°12°Jun
- 26°14°Jul
- 26°14°Aug
- 21°10°Sep
- 16°5°Oct
- 10°1°Nov
- 4°-3°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 Bulgaria
Lepenitsa cave is a cave in Bulgaria. It has 1.5 km of surveyed galleries. The entrance is at 975 m.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Rakitovonearest town · 7.5 km in a straight line
- Plovdiv International Airport (PDV)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 71 km in a straight lineCar hire at PDV airport (Plovdiv)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 kmЛепеница
- 31hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmБалнеокомплекс Свети Спас Велинград, Алегра, Рила and 28 more
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints within 3 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- car parks within 2 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- campsites within 8 km
- restaurants and cafés 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
- Rakitovo7.5 km in a straight line
- Velingrad8.2 km in a straight line
- Batak17 km in a straight line
- Sarnitsa24 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 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 14 | 19 | 23 | 26 | 26 | 21 | 16 | 10 | 4 |
| Afternoon | 2 | 4 | 8 | 14 | 19 | 23 | 26 | 26 | 21 | 16 | 10 | 4 |
| Night | -6 | -4 | -1 | 3 | 8 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 5 | 1 | -3 |
| Rain (mm) | 57 | 48 | 61 | 60 | 72 | 80 | 59 | 49 | 51 | 53 | 44 | 60 |
| Rainy days | 10 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 15 | 13 | 11 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 11 |
| Sun hours/day | 3.4 | 4.3 | 5.0 | 6.1 | 6.8 | 8.3 | 9.3 | 8.9 | 6.7 | 5.3 | 3.7 | 2.8 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 17 | 16 | 12 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 15 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 2 | 2 | -6 | 57 | 3.4 |
| Feb | 4 | 4 | -4 | 48 | 4.3 |
| Mar | 8 | 8 | -1 | 61 | 5.0 |
| Apr | 14 | 14 | 3 | 60 | 6.1 |
| May | 19 | 19 | 8 | 72 | 6.8 |
| Jun | 23 | 23 | 12 | 80 | 8.3 |
| Jul | 26 | 26 | 14 | 59 | 9.3 |
| Aug | 26 | 26 | 14 | 49 | 8.9 |
| Sep | 21 | 21 | 10 | 51 | 6.7 |
| Oct | 16 | 16 | 5 | 53 | 5.3 |
| Nov | 10 | 10 | 1 | 44 | 3.7 |
| Dec | 4 | 4 | -3 | 60 | 2.8 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (975 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 | 51% | 159% | 157% | 110% | 105% | 123% | 88% | 137% | 46% | 123% | 35% | 150% |
| 2021 | 249% | 133% | 118% | 108% | 93% | 100% | 40% | 72% | 56% | 202% | 60% | 304% |
| 2022 | 83% | 157% | 54% | 108% | 59% | 148% | 108% | 201% | 87% | 28% | 116% | 69% |
| 2023 | 174% | 93% | 51% | 174% | 117% | 127% | 62% | 46% | 69% | 30% | 234% | 85% |
| 2024 | 110% | 66% | 101% | 74% | 153% | 55% | 61% | 75% | 94% | 30% | 121% | 171% |
| 2025 | 38% | 126% | 87% | 128% | 120% | 29% | 43% | 92% | 24% | 197% | 255% | 72% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Lepenitsa cave
Bulgaria
- —Depth
- 1.5 kmGalleries
- 975 mEntrance altitude
- 9 °CInside, all year
Snezhanka cave
Bulgaria · 23 km
- 18 mDepth
- 0.4 kmGalleries
- 770 mEntrance altitude
- 10 °CInside, all year
Devil's Throat Cave
Bulgaria · 49 km
- —Depth
- 1.0 kmGalleries
- 1,198 mEntrance altitude
- 8 °CInside, all year
Yagodinska (cave)
Bulgaria · 45 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 992 mEntrance altitude
- 10 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q12284801) · 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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