France Show cave World Heritage
Les Combarelles
13 °C inside, all year.
Ethan Doyle White · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 106 m.
The real relief above Les Combarelles, 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.
106m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
13°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
133m
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
- 17°6°Apr
- 21°10°May
- 25°14°Jun
- 28°16°Jul
- 28°16°Aug
- 25°12°Sep
- 19°9°Oct
- 13°4°Nov
- 9°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 with prehistoric art in southwestern France
Les Combarelles is a show cave in France. The entrance is at 106 m. It has an underground river and stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsticket required
- Saint-Cypriennearest town · 8.3 km in a straight line
- Parking 90 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Point de vue sur la Madeleinenearest viewpoint · 2.2 km from the entrance
- Brive Souillac airport (BVE)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 36 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.
The water
The La Vézère runs highest from November to May.
The La Vézère carries about 2.4 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from November to May.
- 4.1 m³/sJan
- 3.2 m³/sFeb
- 3.7 m³/sMar
- 3.8 m³/sApr
- 3.5 m³/sMay
- 2.2 m³/sJun
- 1.0 m³/sJul
- 0.7 m³/sAug
- 0.8 m³/sSep
- 1.9 m³/sOct
- 3.4 m³/sNov
- 4.0 m³/sDec
From about 0.72 m³/s in the lowest month to 4.1 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 150 km².
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.
- 14other cave entrances within 3 kmGisement préhistorique de Liveyre, Grotte de Font de Gaume, Grotte de la Mouthe and 11 more
- 1springs within 2 km
- 2viewpoints 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
- 9car 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
- 30hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmB&B Ferme de Tayac, Hôtel de la Beune, Hôtel Les Falaises and 27 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-Cyprien8.3 km in a straight line
- Le Bugue9.5 km in a straight line
- Rouffignac-Saint-Cernin-de-Reilhac13 km in a straight line
- Le Buisson-de-Cadouin14 km in a straight line
- Sarlat-la-Canéda15 km in a straight line
- Montignac16 km in a straight line
- Belvès19 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 | 17 | 21 | 25 | 28 | 28 | 25 | 19 | 13 | 9 |
| Afternoon | 8 | 10 | 14 | 17 | 21 | 25 | 28 | 28 | 25 | 19 | 13 | 9 |
| Night | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 12 | 9 | 4 | 1 |
| 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 | 17 | 17 | 6 | 76 | 6.4 |
| May | 21 | 21 | 10 | 82 | 7.0 |
| Jun | 25 | 25 | 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 | 19 | 19 | 9 | 66 | 4.9 |
| Nov | 13 | 13 | 4 | 74 | 3.1 |
| Dec | 9 | 9 | 1 | 71 | 2.6 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (106 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.
Les Combarelles
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 106 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Font-de-Gaume cave
France · 1 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 91 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Abri de la Madeleine
France · 3 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 78 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q1487492) · 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 |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
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