Iraq Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 461 m.
The real relief above Shanidar 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.
461m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
20°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
282m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
20 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 20 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 42 °C at the entrance, 23 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from May to October. The wettest months are from March to April: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 10°2°Jan
- 12°3°Feb
- 18°7°Mar
- 23°11°Apr
- 30°17°May
- 38°22°Jun
- 42°26°Jul
- 42°26°Aug
- 36°22°Sep
- 28°16°Oct
- 18°8°Nov
- 13°4°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.
Archaeological site
Shanidar Cave is a cave in Iraq. The entrance is at 461 m. It has an underground river.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Mêrgasurnearest town · 6.9 km in a straight line
- Ashkaftq villagenearest viewpoint · 3.4 km from the entrance
- Erbil International Airport (EBL)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 68 km in a straight line
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 March to May.
The the river carries about 101 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from March to May, fed by melting snow. It is lowest from July to November.
- 211 m³/sJan
- 255 m³/sFeb
- 425 m³/sMar
- 513 m³/sApr
- 407 m³/sMay
- 205 m³/sJun
- 47 m³/sJul
- 8.2 m³/sAug
- 6.9 m³/sSep
- 48 m³/sOct
- 130 m³/sNov
- 153 m³/sDec
From about 6.9 m³/s in the lowest month to 513 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 13,794 km².
Follow the Great Zab from source to mouth on Riveryas
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.
- 1viewpoints within 3 kmAshkaftq village
- 3hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmBerkas village, مهند السبعاوي
- 2restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- other cave entrances 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
- car parks within 2 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- campsites within 8 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
- Mêrgasur6.9 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Shanidar 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.
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 | 10 | 12 | 18 | 23 | 30 | 38 | 42 | 42 | 36 | 28 | 18 | 13 |
| Afternoon | 10 | 12 | 18 | 23 | 30 | 38 | 42 | 42 | 36 | 28 | 18 | 13 |
| Night | 2 | 3 | 7 | 11 | 17 | 22 | 26 | 26 | 22 | 16 | 8 | 4 |
| Rain (mm) | 38 | 34 | 52 | 52 | 29 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 28 | 40 | 37 |
| Rainy days | 7 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 7 |
| Sun hours/day | 5.7 | 6.6 | 5.8 | 7.0 | 9.4 | 13.0 | 12.6 | 11.9 | 10.5 | 7.2 | 5.3 | 4.7 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 16 | 14 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 13 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 10 | 10 | 2 | 38 | 5.7 |
| Feb | 12 | 12 | 3 | 34 | 6.6 |
| Mar | 18 | 18 | 7 | 52 | 5.8 |
| Apr | 23 | 23 | 11 | 52 | 7.0 |
| May | 30 | 30 | 17 | 29 | 9.4 |
| Jun | 38 | 38 | 22 | 8 | 13.0 |
| Jul | 42 | 42 | 26 | 3 | 12.6 |
| Aug | 42 | 42 | 26 | 3 | 11.9 |
| Sep | 36 | 36 | 22 | 3 | 10.5 |
| Oct | 28 | 28 | 16 | 28 | 7.2 |
| Nov | 18 | 18 | 8 | 40 | 5.3 |
| Dec | 13 | 13 | 4 | 37 | 4.7 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (461 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 | 119% | 185% | 170% | 103% | 66% | 27% | — | — | — | 4% | 173% | 48% |
| 2021 | 72% | 131% | 80% | 22% | 54% | 0% | — | — | — | 99% | 50% | 140% |
| 2022 | 156% | 96% | 68% | 87% | 90% | 62% | — | — | — | 44% | 132% | 37% |
| 2023 | 114% | 100% | 153% | 138% | 111% | 23% | — | — | — | 62% | 112% | 66% |
| 2024 | 225% | 137% | 118% | 111% | 197% | 154% | — | — | — | 64% | 83% | 65% |
| 2025 | 20% | 126% | 45% | 147% | 147% | 62% | — | — | — | 32% | 89% | 249% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Shanidar Cave
Iraq
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 461 mEntrance altitude
- 20 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q909799) · 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
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
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