Bulgaria Show cave
Orlova Chuka
13 km of galleries.
Iliana Teneva · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 150 m.
The real relief above Orlova Chuka, 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.
13km
Galleries
surveyed length (Wikidata)
150m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
13°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
78m
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 32 °C at the entrance, 19 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from June to August. The wettest months are from May to June: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 4°-4°Jan
- 7°-3°Feb
- 12°1°Mar
- 18°6°Apr
- 23°12°May
- 28°16°Jun
- 31°18°Jul
- 32°18°Aug
- 26°13°Sep
- 19°7°Oct
- 12°3°Nov
- 5°-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 in Bulgaria
Orlova Chuka is a show cave in Bulgaria. It has 13 km of surveyed galleries. The entrance is at 150 m. It has an underground river, stalactites and stalagmites and several entrances and long galleries. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsUsually with a guided tour; check times and tickets on the official site.
- Dve Mogilinearest town · 6.9 km in a straight line
- Parking 510 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.4 km from the entrance
- Bucharest Băneasa Aurel Vlaicu International Airport (BBU)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 102 km in a straight lineCar hire at OTP airport (Otopeni)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 June.
The the river carries about 6.0 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from February to June.
- 6.7 m³/sJan
- 11 m³/sFeb
- 15 m³/sMar
- 13 m³/sApr
- 12 m³/sMay
- 10 m³/sJun
- 6.3 m³/sJul
- 2.8 m³/sAug
- 4.6 m³/sSep
- 7.8 m³/sOct
- 5.9 m³/sNov
- 4.3 m³/sDec
From about 2.8 m³/s in the lowest month to 15 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 1,443 km².
The Rusenski Lom 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.
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.
- 2other cave entrances within 3 kmОрлова чука, Църквата
- 1viewpoints within 3 km
- 2car parks within 2 km
- 4information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 1campsites within 8 km
- 5hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmВила Ангел, Орлова чука, Комплекс "Фламинго";Жокей and 2 more
- 1restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- marked hiking routes 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
- Dve Mogili6.9 km in a straight line
- Ivanovo11 km in a straight line
- Borovo16 km in a straight line
- Opaka23 km in a straight line
- Tsar Kaloyan24 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Orlova Chuka.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Riveryas2 rivers at the entranceFigures 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 | 4 | 7 | 12 | 18 | 23 | 28 | 31 | 32 | 26 | 19 | 12 | 5 |
| Afternoon | 4 | 7 | 12 | 18 | 23 | 28 | 31 | 32 | 26 | 19 | 12 | 5 |
| Night | -4 | -3 | 1 | 6 | 12 | 16 | 18 | 18 | 13 | 7 | 3 | -2 |
| Rain (mm) | 48 | 40 | 46 | 43 | 68 | 72 | 58 | 46 | 55 | 55 | 41 | 51 |
| Rainy days | 8 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.9 | 3.8 | 5.0 | 6.9 | 8.3 | 9.4 | 10.1 | 9.5 | 7.1 | 4.9 | 3.0 | 2.5 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 16 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 12 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 4 | 4 | -4 | 48 | 2.9 |
| Feb | 7 | 7 | -3 | 40 | 3.8 |
| Mar | 12 | 12 | 1 | 46 | 5.0 |
| Apr | 18 | 18 | 6 | 43 | 6.9 |
| May | 23 | 23 | 12 | 68 | 8.3 |
| Jun | 28 | 28 | 16 | 72 | 9.4 |
| Jul | 31 | 31 | 18 | 58 | 10.1 |
| Aug | 32 | 32 | 18 | 46 | 9.5 |
| Sep | 26 | 26 | 13 | 55 | 7.1 |
| Oct | 19 | 19 | 7 | 55 | 4.9 |
| Nov | 12 | 12 | 3 | 41 | 3.0 |
| Dec | 5 | 5 | -2 | 51 | 2.5 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (150 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 | 7% | 143% | 120% | 34% | 97% | 123% | 28% | 47% | 95% | 96% | 61% | 146% |
| 2021 | 236% | 46% | 191% | 130% | 83% | 152% | 37% | 58% | 15% | 184% | 82% | 134% |
| 2022 | 23% | 72% | 28% | 150% | 38% | 120% | 31% | 79% | 109% | 15% | 109% | 45% |
| 2023 | 131% | 41% | 73% | 199% | 68% | 57% | 60% | 77% | 38% | 8% | 290% | 81% |
| 2024 | 55% | 13% | 73% | 161% | 83% | 47% | 84% | 42% | 101% | 41% | 136% | 205% |
| 2025 | 16% | 68% | 50% | 89% | 138% | 28% | 68% | 35% | 22% | 320% | 172% | 52% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Orlova Chuka
Bulgaria
- —Depth
- 13 kmGalleries
- 150 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Bacho Kiro cave
Bulgaria · 83 km
- —Depth
- 3.6 kmGalleries
- 504 mEntrance altitude
- 11 °CInside, all year
Devetashka cave
Bulgaria · 95 km
- 96 mDepth
- 2.4 kmGalleries
- 126 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Wine Museum
Bulgaria · 110 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 165 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q12289333) · 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 |
| 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
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