France Show cave
Aven Marzal
12 °C inside, all year.
Wayne77 · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 352 m.
The real relief above Aven Marzal, 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.
352m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
12°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
72m
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 July the afternoon reaches 30 °C at the entrance, 18 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from July to August. The wettest months are from October to November: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 7°0°Jan
- 8°0°Feb
- 12°2°Mar
- 16°6°Apr
- 21°10°May
- 26°14°Jun
- 30°16°Jul
- 29°16°Aug
- 24°12°Sep
- 18°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.
Cave in France
Aven Marzal is a show cave in France. The entrance is at 352 m. It has stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsUsually with a guided tour; check times and tickets on the official site.Official site↗
- Saint-Marcel-d'Ardèchenearest town · 9.7 km in a straight line
- Parking 80 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 2.6 km from the entrance
- Avignon Caumont airport (AVN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 60 km in a straight lineCar hire at FNI airport (Nîmes/Garons)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.
- 15other cave entrances within 3 kmAven de la Vigne Close, Aven Gauthier, Aven du Cadet and 12 more
- 8viewpoints within 3 kmBalcon de Gournier, Belvédère des Templiers, Belvédère de la Maladrerie and 5 more
- 32marked hiking routes within 3 kmSentier amont des Gorges de l'Ardèche, SPHC, étape 13, SPHC, étape 12 and 29 more
- 5car parks within 2 km
- 2information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 1bus stops within 2 km
- 32campsites within 8 kmAire Domaine du Brechon, Aire de camping-cars Maison de la Lavande, Camping le Pontet and 29 more
- 21hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmHôtel des Touristes, Domaine de Chames, Auberge des Gorges and 18 more
- 5restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 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
- Saint-Marcel-d'Ardèche9.7 km in a straight line
- Saint-Julien-de-Peyrolas10 km in a straight line
- Vallon-Pont-d'Arc10 km in a straight line
- Bourg-Saint-Andéol11 km in a straight line
- Saint-Just-d'Ardèche11 km in a straight line
- Saint-Paulet-de-Caisson14 km in a straight line
- Barjac15 km in a straight line
- Pierrelatte15 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Aven Marzal.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas3 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 | 7 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 21 | 26 | 30 | 29 | 24 | 18 | 12 | 8 |
| Afternoon | 7 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 21 | 26 | 30 | 29 | 24 | 18 | 12 | 8 |
| Night | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 1 |
| Rain (mm) | 62 | 50 | 57 | 74 | 77 | 52 | 45 | 48 | 75 | 113 | 116 | 68 |
| Rainy days | 10 | 8 | 8 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 12 | 12 | 10 |
| Sun hours/day | 3.5 | 4.9 | 6.3 | 7.2 | 8.3 | 10.4 | 10.8 | 9.5 | 7.7 | 4.9 | 3.7 | 3.3 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 10 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 7 | 7 | 0 | 62 | 3.5 |
| Feb | 8 | 8 | 0 | 50 | 4.9 |
| Mar | 12 | 12 | 2 | 57 | 6.3 |
| Apr | 16 | 16 | 6 | 74 | 7.2 |
| May | 21 | 21 | 10 | 77 | 8.3 |
| Jun | 26 | 26 | 14 | 52 | 10.4 |
| Jul | 30 | 30 | 16 | 45 | 10.8 |
| Aug | 29 | 29 | 16 | 48 | 9.5 |
| Sep | 24 | 24 | 12 | 75 | 7.7 |
| Oct | 18 | 18 | 8 | 113 | 4.9 |
| Nov | 12 | 12 | 4 | 116 | 3.7 |
| Dec | 8 | 8 | 1 | 68 | 3.3 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (352 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
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 | 55% | 41% | 63% | 71% | 87% | 190% | 25% | 90% | 106% | 72% | 41% | 159% |
| 2021 | 65% | 75% | 21% | 102% | 119% | 107% | 152% | 62% | 112% | 105% | 45% | 88% |
| 2022 | 38% | 38% | 61% | 52% | 21% | 98% | 23% | 127% | 133% | 45% | 101% | 150% |
| 2023 | 31% | 32% | 62% | 36% | 86% | 176% | 35% | 42% | 67% | 98% | 57% | 73% |
| 2024 | 53% | 135% | 323% | 77% | 157% | 124% | 108% | 58% | 159% | 103% | 33% | 45% |
| 2025 | 76% | 71% | 82% | 50% | 29% | 29% | 42% | 49% | 41% | 29% | 39% | 115% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Aven Marzal
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 352 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Cave Saint-Marcel-d'Ardèche
France · 5 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 196 mEntrance altitude
- 14 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q38298726) · 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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