France Show cave
Rivière souterraine de Labouiche
10 km of galleries.
Tylwyth Eldar · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 447 m.
The real relief above Rivière souterraine de Labouiche, 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.
10km
Galleries
surveyed length (Wikidata)
447m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
13°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
235m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
54,830
Visitors a year
published (Wikidata)
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 July the afternoon reaches 30 °C at the entrance, 16 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from July to August.
- 9°1°Jan
- 10°0°Feb
- 13°3°Mar
- 17°6°Apr
- 21°9°May
- 26°14°Jun
- 30°16°Jul
- 29°16°Aug
- 25°12°Sep
- 20°9°Oct
- 13°4°Nov
- 10°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.
Subterranean river in France with evidence of Paleolithic culture
Rivière souterraine de Labouiche is a show cave in France. It has 10 km of surveyed galleries. The entrance is at 447 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 visitorsticket requiredOfficial site↗
- Foixnearest town · 5.1 km in a straight line
- Parking 190 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Roc de Caralpnearest viewpoint · 1.9 km from the entrance
- Carcassonne Salvaza Airport (CCF)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 64 km in a straight lineCar hire at CCF airport (Carcassonne)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.
- 3other cave entrances within 3 kmGrotte de Fajal, Grotte de Couffet
- 1sinkholes within 3 km
- 1viewpoints within 3 kmRoc de Caralp
- 1marked hiking routes within 3 kmTour de La Barguillère
- 1car parks within 2 km
- 8campsites within 8 kmCamping Municipal de Cos, Aire Naturelle La Clairiere, La ferme de Marseillas and 5 more
- 19hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmLe Poulsieu, Hôtel Lons, Les Carcis Gite and 16 more
- springs within 2 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- bus stops within 2 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
- Foix5.1 km in a straight line
- Varilhes6.5 km in a straight line
- Montgaillard9.0 km in a straight line
- Saint-Jean-du-Falga10 km in a straight line
- Verniolle11 km in a straight line
- Saint-Paul-de-Jarrat12 km in a straight line
- Pamiers13 km in a straight line
- La Tour-du-Crieu13 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Rivière souterraine de Labouiche.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas1 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 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 17 | 21 | 26 | 30 | 29 | 25 | 20 | 13 | 10 |
| Afternoon | 9 | 10 | 13 | 17 | 21 | 26 | 30 | 29 | 25 | 20 | 13 | 10 |
| Night | 1 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 12 | 9 | 4 | 2 |
| Rain (mm) | 76 | 60 | 64 | 76 | 82 | 56 | 47 | 50 | 53 | 68 | 84 | 67 |
| Rainy days | 12 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 12 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.8 | 4.6 | 6.0 | 6.8 | 7.3 | 8.7 | 9.0 | 8.4 | 7.4 | 5.4 | 3.5 | 3.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 11 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 10 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 9 | 9 | 1 | 76 | 2.8 |
| Feb | 10 | 10 | 0 | 60 | 4.6 |
| Mar | 13 | 13 | 3 | 64 | 6.0 |
| Apr | 17 | 17 | 6 | 76 | 6.8 |
| May | 21 | 21 | 9 | 82 | 7.3 |
| Jun | 26 | 26 | 14 | 56 | 8.7 |
| Jul | 30 | 30 | 16 | 47 | 9.0 |
| Aug | 29 | 29 | 16 | 50 | 8.4 |
| Sep | 25 | 25 | 12 | 53 | 7.4 |
| Oct | 20 | 20 | 9 | 68 | 5.4 |
| Nov | 13 | 13 | 4 | 84 | 3.5 |
| Dec | 10 | 10 | 2 | 67 | 3.0 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (447 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 | 89% | 55% | 141% | 143% | 119% | 177% | 83% | 118% | 174% | 201% | 68% | 205% |
| 2021 | 99% | 77% | 29% | 43% | 61% | 139% | 89% | 50% | 155% | 58% | 127% | 123% |
| 2022 | 54% | 34% | 93% | 79% | 37% | 77% | 68% | 86% | 143% | 22% | 115% | 49% |
| 2023 | 96% | 36% | 55% | 61% | 98% | 196% | 86% | 99% | 75% | 90% | 123% | 95% |
| 2024 | 53% | 120% | 124% | 70% | 95% | 104% | 67% | 72% | 160% | 175% | 43% | 76% |
| 2025 | 37% | 17% | 124% | 49% | 44% | 31% | 90% | 93% | 76% | 17% | 47% | 57% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Rivière souterraine de Labouiche
France
- —Depth
- 10 kmGalleries
- 447 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Cave of Niaux
France · 20 km
- —Depth
- 2.0 kmGalleries
- 718 mEntrance altitude
- 11 °CInside, all year
Grotte du Mas-d'Azil
France · 19 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 416 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Trois Frères Cave
France · 29 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 486 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q3433942) · 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.
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