Thailand Cave

Tham Luang

85 m deep, 10 km of galleries.

Ponddz · CC BY-SA 4.0

The descent

85 metres down, to scale.

The real relief above Tham Luang, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.

Tower of Pisa (56 m) would fit upside down 1.5 times.

The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey.

85m

Depth

published (Wikidata)

10km

Galleries

surveyed length (Wikidata)

437m

Entrance altitude

from the 30 m relief model

25°C

Inside, all year

the yearly average outside, at the entrance

789m

Rock above

the highest point within 1.5 km

Inside and outside

25 °C inside, all year.

Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 25 °C here, in January and in August. In April the afternoon reaches 36 °C at the entrance, 10 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from January to November.

outside, at the entrance (437 m)inside

27°13°Jan
30°15°Feb
34°18°Mar
36°22°Apr
34°23°May
33°23°Jun
31°23°Jul
31°23°Aug
31°22°Sep
30°20°Oct
28°17°Nov
26°14°Dec

Inside: 25 °C all yearEscape the heat: Jan–NovWettest: May, Jul–Sep

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 Chiang Rai province, Thailand

Tham Luang is a cave in Thailand. It goes down 85 m below the entrance and has 10 km of surveyed galleries. The entrance is at 437 m. It has several entrances and long galleries. It lies within Tham Luang - Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park.

Getting there.

Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
Mae Sainearest town · 5.9 km in a straight line
Unfinished Housenearest viewpoint · 1.1 km from the entrance
Tachileik Airport (THL)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 13 km in a straight lineCar hire in Chiang RaiDiscover Cars · sponsored link

Plan the visit

Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.

Car hire in Chiang RaiDiscover CarsSee prices

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.

The ground above Tham Luang (Sentinel-2)

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.

4other cave entrances within 3 kmถ้ำหลวง, Naga Cave and 2 more
1springs within 2 km
6viewpoints within 3 kmUnfinished House and 5 more
2car parks within 2 km
2information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
4bus stops within 2 km
1campsites within 8 kmจุดกางเต็นท์สวนภูผาฮี้
57hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmMae Sai Guesthouse, Yeesun Hotel, Golden Triangle and 54 more
8restaurants and cafés within 3 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

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

Mae Sai5.9 km in a straight line
Tachilek7.5 km in a straight line
Mae Fa Luang15 km in a straight line
Ban Khoan24 km in a straight line

In our other atlases

What else is around Tham Luang.

The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.

Peakyas11 mountains within 10 km

Doi Chong1,269 m · 1.7 kmDoi Mot · 3.0 kmDoi Tham Pum808 m · 4.1 kmDoi Tung1,389 m · 5.0 kmDoi Tham Pla · 6.1 kmDoi Tham Khao Hin Phayanak · 6.7 kmDoi Chang Mub870 m · 7.7 kmDoi Pa Po · 9.6 km

Figures 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	27	30	34	36	34	33	31	31	31	30	28	26
Afternoon	27	30	34	36	34	33	31	31	31	30	28	26
Night	13	15	18	22	23	23	23	23	22	20	17	14
Rain (mm)	20	4	22	58	144	123	225	251	170	87	32	15
Rainy days	2	1	4	10	19	22	26	27	21	13	5	2
Sun hours/day	7.2	8.1	7.3	7.7	6.8	5.0	3.7	3.9	5.2	6.0	7.2	6.8

	Afternoon	Afternoon	Night	Rain (mm)	Sun hours/day
Jan	27	27	13	20	7.2
Feb	30	30	15	4	8.1
Mar	34	34	18	22	7.3
Apr	36	36	22	58	7.7
May	34	34	23	144	6.8
Jun	33	33	23	123	5.0
Jul	31	31	23	225	3.7
Aug	31	31	23	251	3.9
Sep	31	31	22	170	5.2
Oct	30	30	20	87	6.0
Nov	28	28	17	32	7.2
Dec	26	26	14	15	6.8

Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (437 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.

Photographs

Inside and around.

Tham Luang Nang Non, cave mouth — NaN · Mot Dang · CC BY 4.0

Tham Luang - inside (cropped) — Taweetham · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tham Luang - inside2 — Taweetham · CC BY-SA 4.0

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	3%	—	10%	247%	65%	194%	93%	159%	124%	61%	60%	6%
2021	50%	—	19%	176%	81%	184%	134%	138%	106%	168%	160%	23%
2022	349%	—	229%	154%	175%	127%	111%	133%	116%	116%	224%	68%
2023	5%	—	43%	32%	50%	108%	55%	60%	103%	132%	36%	68%
2024	55%	—	36%	78%	76%	146%	65%	168%	117%	142%	89%	112%
2025	2%	—	24%	126%	129%	135%	181%	92%	94%	82%	280%	38%

130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month

Caves nearby.

Tham Luang

Thailand

85 mDepth
10 kmGalleries
437 mEntrance altitude
25 °CInside, all year

Spirit Cave, Thailand

Thailand · 189 km

—Depth
—Galleries
671 mEntrance altitude
24 °CInside, all year

See the guide

Tham Lot

Thailand · 189 km

—Depth
—Galleries
681 mEntrance altitude
24 °CInside, all year

See the guide

Chom Ong

Laos · 211 km

—Depth
—Galleries
797 mEntrance altitude
23 °CInside, all year

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name, type, published depth and length, visitors	Wikidata (Q14752104) · 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?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

beaches

Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit

lakes

Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Visit

mountains

Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit

waterfalls

Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Visit

islands

Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit

rivers

Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit

canyons

Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit

caves

Every cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.You are here

dark skies Darkskyas

Where the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Coming soonVisit

viewpoints Viewyas

Every viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.Coming soonVisit

birdwatching Birdyas

Every bird sanctuary and wetland with the species recorded month by month: who is resident, who comes for the summer, who only passes through.Coming soonVisit

forests

Every forest with its land-cover rings, what grows and lives in it, and the best months to walk it.Coming soonVisit

	Afternoon	Afternoon	Night	Rain (mm)	Sun hours/day
Jan	27	27	13	20	7.2
Feb	30	30	15	4	8.1
Mar	34	34	18	22	7.3
Apr	36	36	22	58	7.7
May	34	34	23	144	6.8
Jun	33	33	23	123	5.0
Jul	31	31	23	225	3.7
Aug	31	31	23	251	3.9
Sep	31	31	22	170	5.2
Oct	30	30	20	87	6.0
Nov	28	28	17	32	7.2
Dec	26	26	14	15	6.8

	Afternoon	Afternoon	Night	Rain (mm)	Sun hours/day
Jan	27	27	13	20	7.2
Feb	30	30	15	4	8.1
Mar	34	34	18	22	7.3
Apr	36	36	22	58	7.7
May	34	34	23	144	6.8
Jun	33	33	23	123	5.0
Jul	31	31	23	225	3.7
Aug	31	31	23	251	3.9
Sep	31	31	22	170	5.2
Oct	30	30	20	87	6.0
Nov	28	28	17	32	7.2
Dec	26	26	14	15	6.8

	Afternoon	Afternoon	Night	Rain (mm)	Sun hours/day
Jan	27	27	13	20	7.2
Feb	30	30	15	4	8.1
Mar	34	34	18	22	7.3
Apr	36	36	22	58	7.7
May	34	34	23	144	6.8
Jun	33	33	23	123	5.0
Jul	31	31	23	225	3.7
Aug	31	31	23	251	3.9
Sep	31	31	22	170	5.2
Oct	30	30	20	87	6.0
Nov	28	28	17	32	7.2
Dec	26	26	14	15	6.8