United States Cave World Heritage
Mammoth Cave
644 km of galleries.
Daniel Schwen · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 235 m.
The real relief above Mammoth 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.
644km
Galleries
surveyed length (Wikidata)
235m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
14°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
35m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
14 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 14 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 30 °C at the entrance, 17 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from June to September.
- 5°-4°Jan
- 8°-2°Feb
- 14°2°Mar
- 20°8°Apr
- 24°14°May
- 28°18°Jun
- 30°20°Jul
- 30°20°Aug
- 27°15°Sep
- 21°8°Oct
- 14°2°Nov
- 8°-2°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 system in Kentucky, United States of America
Mammoth Cave is a cave in United States. It has 644 km of surveyed galleries. The entrance is at 235 m. It has several entrances and long galleries. It lies within Mammoth Cave National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Cave Citynearest town · 14 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.5 km from the entrance
- Owensboro Daviess County Airport (OWB)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 113 km in a straight lineCar hire at SDF airport (Louisville)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.
- 5other cave entrances within 3 kmMammoth Cave Historic Entrance, Cathedral Domes, Carmichael Entrance and 2 more
- 10viewpoints within 3 kmSunset Point, Dixon Cave, Furlong Cemetery and 7 more
- 10marked hiking routes within 3 kmGreen River Bluffs Trail, Echo River Springs Trail, Sinkhole Trail and 7 more
- 17car parks within 2 km
- 1information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 11campsites within 8 kmMaple Springs Group Campground, Turnhole Bend CG, Ferguson Campsite and 8 more
- 2hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmThe Wayfarer B&B, Mammoth Cave Lodge
- 2restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 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
- Cave City14 km in a straight line
- Brownsville15 km in a straight line
- Horse Cave17 km in a straight line
- Munfordville21 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Mammoth 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.
Peakyas3 mountains within 10 kmFigures 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 | 5 | 8 | 14 | 20 | 24 | 28 | 30 | 30 | 27 | 21 | 14 | 8 |
| Afternoon | 5 | 8 | 14 | 20 | 24 | 28 | 30 | 30 | 27 | 21 | 14 | 8 |
| Night | -4 | -2 | 2 | 8 | 14 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 15 | 8 | 2 | -2 |
| Rain (mm) | 100 | 120 | 116 | 139 | 142 | 119 | 140 | 108 | 98 | 108 | 105 | 128 |
| Rainy days | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Sun hours/day | 3.6 | 4.0 | 5.1 | 6.9 | 7.3 | 8.8 | 8.4 | 8.0 | 7.2 | 6.0 | 4.9 | 3.3 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 5 | 5 | -4 | 100 | 3.6 |
| Feb | 8 | 8 | -2 | 120 | 4.0 |
| Mar | 14 | 14 | 2 | 116 | 5.1 |
| Apr | 20 | 20 | 8 | 139 | 6.9 |
| May | 24 | 24 | 14 | 142 | 7.3 |
| Jun | 28 | 28 | 18 | 119 | 8.8 |
| Jul | 30 | 30 | 20 | 140 | 8.4 |
| Aug | 30 | 30 | 20 | 108 | 8.0 |
| Sep | 27 | 27 | 15 | 98 | 7.2 |
| Oct | 21 | 21 | 8 | 108 | 6.0 |
| Nov | 14 | 14 | 2 | 105 | 4.9 |
| Dec | 8 | 8 | -2 | 128 | 3.3 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (235 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Caves nearby.
Mammoth Cave
United States
- —Depth
- 644 kmGalleries
- 235 mEntrance altitude
- 14 °CInside, all year
Horse Cave
United States · 17 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 193 mEntrance altitude
- 14 °CInside, all year
Great Onyx Cave
United States · 4 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 171 mEntrance altitude
- 14 °CInside, all year
Colossal Cavern
United States · 2 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 213 mEntrance altitude
- 14 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q2666855) · 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 |
| 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
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.
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Every viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.Coming soonVisit 
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