Vietnam Doug Knuth from Woodstock, IL · CC BY-SA 2.0
The descent
The entrance, at 390 m.
The real relief above Son Doong 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.
390m
Entrance altitude
published (Wikidata)
23°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
361m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
23 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 23 °C here, in January and in August. In May the afternoon reaches 31 °C at the entrance, 8 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from March to September. The wettest months are from July to October: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 22°14°Jan
- 24°15°Feb
- 28°17°Mar
- 31°20°Apr
- 31°22°May
- 30°23°Jun
- 30°23°Jul
- 29°22°Aug
- 28°22°Sep
- 26°20°Oct
- 25°18°Nov
- 22°15°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.
Largest cave passage in the world, located near the Laos-Vietnam border
Son Doong Cave is a show cave in Vietnam. The entrance is at 390 m. It has an underground river and stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsticket requiredOfficial site↗
- Xuân Sơnnearest town · 18 km in a straight line
- Dong Hoi Airport (VDH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 33 km in a straight lineCar hire in Nakhon PhanomDiscover 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 September to October.
The the river carries about 5.3 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from September to October. It is lowest from January to June.
- 1.9 m³/sJan
- 0.6 m³/sFeb
- 0.5 m³/sMar
- 0.9 m³/sApr
- 2.9 m³/sMay
- 3.4 m³/sJun
- 6.3 m³/sJul
- 9.4 m³/sAug
- 16 m³/sSep
- 20 m³/sOct
- 12 m³/sNov
- 5.7 m³/sDec
From about 0.48 m³/s in the lowest month to 20 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 123 km².
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.
- 5other cave entrances within 3 kmHang Sơn Đoòng, Hang Sơn Đoòng - Hồ Khanh, Hang Én and 2 more
- 3campsites within 8 kmBức tường Việt Nam, Oxalis Hang Va Camp
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints within 3 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
- hotels and guesthouses within 8 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
- Xuân Sơn18 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Son Doong 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.
Peakyas4 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 | 22 | 24 | 28 | 31 | 31 | 30 | 30 | 29 | 28 | 26 | 25 | 22 |
| Afternoon | 22 | 24 | 28 | 31 | 31 | 30 | 30 | 29 | 28 | 26 | 25 | 22 |
| Night | 14 | 15 | 17 | 20 | 22 | 23 | 23 | 22 | 22 | 20 | 18 | 15 |
| Rain (mm) | 36 | 23 | 41 | 60 | 122 | 111 | 192 | 233 | 345 | 379 | 140 | 79 |
| Rainy days | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Sun hours/day | 1.8 | 3.0 | 3.2 | 4.8 | 6.4 | 6.4 | 5.8 | 5.1 | 4.4 | 3.0 | 2.3 | 1.0 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 22 | 22 | 14 | 36 | 1.8 |
| Feb | 24 | 24 | 15 | 23 | 3.0 |
| Mar | 28 | 28 | 17 | 41 | 3.2 |
| Apr | 31 | 31 | 20 | 60 | 4.8 |
| May | 31 | 31 | 22 | 122 | 6.4 |
| Jun | 30 | 30 | 23 | 111 | 6.4 |
| Jul | 30 | 30 | 23 | 192 | 5.8 |
| Aug | 29 | 29 | 22 | 233 | 5.1 |
| Sep | 28 | 28 | 22 | 345 | 4.4 |
| Oct | 26 | 26 | 20 | 379 | 3.0 |
| Nov | 25 | 25 | 18 | 140 | 2.3 |
| Dec | 22 | 22 | 15 | 79 | 1.0 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (390 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Caves nearby.
Son Doong Cave
Vietnam
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 390 mEntrance altitude
- 23 °CInside, all year
Thien Duong Cave
Vietnam · 10 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 253 mEntrance altitude
- 24 °CInside, all year
Hang Én (swift cave)
Vietnam · 3 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 188 mEntrance altitude
- 24 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q44889) · 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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