France Céréales Killer · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 287 m.
The real relief above Pech Merle 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.
287m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
12°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
81m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
12 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 12 °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°0°Jan
- 9°0°Feb
- 13°3°Mar
- 17°6°Apr
- 20°9°May
- 25°13°Jun
- 28°15°Jul
- 28°15°Aug
- 24°11°Sep
- 19°8°Oct
- 12°4°Nov
- 8°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.
Decorated cave in southwestern France
Pech Merle cave is a show cave in France. The entrance is at 287 m. It has stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsticket required
- Cajarcnearest town · 16 km in a straight line
- Parking 10 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.7 km from the entrance
- Brive Souillac airport (BVE)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 60 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.
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.
- 16other cave entrances within 3 kmGrotte de Pech-Merle, Grotte de la Racine, Cuzoul de Monclar and 13 more
- 2springs within 2 kmÉmergence de la Dragonnière, Source de Cavirande
- 4viewpoints within 3 km
- 6marked hiking routes within 3 kmVallée du Célé, De Tours à Toulouse 05, Vers - Cahuzac, De la Manche aux Pyrénées 18, Cahors - Villefranche-de-Rouergue and 3 more
- 5climbing crags within 3 kmLiauzu - Les granges, Les calanques, Moulin du Liauzu and 2 more
- 11car parks within 2 km
- 10information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 14campsites within 8 kmLes Cadichons, La Truffière, Le Mas de Nadal and 11 more
- 26hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmHôtel Auberge de la Sagne, Domaine du Porche, Auberge du Roucayrol and 23 more
- 4restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 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
- Cajarc16 km in a straight line
- Cahors18 km in a straight line
- Pradines19 km in a straight line
- Lalbenque20 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Pech Merle 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.
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 | 8 | 9 | 13 | 17 | 20 | 25 | 28 | 28 | 24 | 19 | 12 | 8 |
| Afternoon | 8 | 9 | 13 | 17 | 20 | 25 | 28 | 28 | 24 | 19 | 12 | 8 |
| Night | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 1 |
| Rain (mm) | 67 | 47 | 64 | 72 | 80 | 61 | 48 | 56 | 52 | 64 | 70 | 66 |
| Rainy days | 12 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 12 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.7 | 4.4 | 5.5 | 6.6 | 7.4 | 9.1 | 9.3 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 5.2 | 3.3 | 2.8 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 7 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 8 | 8 | 0 | 67 | 2.7 |
| Feb | 9 | 9 | 0 | 47 | 4.4 |
| Mar | 13 | 13 | 3 | 64 | 5.5 |
| Apr | 17 | 17 | 6 | 72 | 6.6 |
| May | 20 | 20 | 9 | 80 | 7.4 |
| Jun | 25 | 25 | 13 | 61 | 9.1 |
| Jul | 28 | 28 | 15 | 48 | 9.3 |
| Aug | 28 | 28 | 15 | 56 | 8.5 |
| Sep | 24 | 24 | 11 | 52 | 7.5 |
| Oct | 19 | 19 | 8 | 64 | 5.2 |
| Nov | 12 | 12 | 4 | 70 | 3.3 |
| Dec | 8 | 8 | 1 | 66 | 2.8 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (287 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% | 102% | 109% | 86% | 105% | 155% | 14% | 119% | 142% | 201% | 39% | 224% |
| 2021 | 122% | 139% | 35% | 39% | 125% | 212% | 181% | 43% | 213% | 65% | 80% | 164% |
| 2022 | 57% | 71% | 69% | 91% | 24% | 177% | 9% | 54% | 108% | 37% | 125% | 83% |
| 2023 | 92% | 34% | 121% | 102% | 107% | 168% | 64% | 70% | 73% | 140% | 219% | 148% |
| 2024 | 70% | 201% | 151% | 91% | 161% | 138% | 109% | 57% | 220% | 164% | 66% | 79% |
| 2025 | 80% | 30% | 37% | 52% | 28% | 45% | 21% | 44% | 45% | 42% | 45% | 46% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Pech Merle cave
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 287 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Grottes de Cougnac
France · 35 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 211 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q1758359) · 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?
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