France Cave
Bruniquel Cave
13 °C inside, all year.
Luc-Henri Fage/SSAC · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 162 m.
The real relief above Bruniquel 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.
162m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
13°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
173m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
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 29 °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°1°Feb
- 14°4°Mar
- 18°7°Apr
- 21°10°May
- 26°14°Jun
- 29°16°Jul
- 29°16°Aug
- 25°13°Sep
- 20°9°Oct
- 13°5°Nov
- 9°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.
Cave in France, with prehistoric structures
Bruniquel Cave is a cave in France. The entrance is at 162 m. It has an underground river and stalactites and stalagmites.
Getting there.
- No public accessProtected for science or for its art. Look for a replica or a visitor centre nearby.
- Montricouxnearest town · 4.8 km in a straight line
- Vue sur Bruniquelnearest viewpoint · 0.9 km from the entrance
- Toulouse-Blagnac Airport (TLS)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 54 km in a straight lineCar hire at TLS airport (Toulouse/Blagnac)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.
The water
The L'Aveyron runs highest from November to May.
The L'Aveyron carries about 48 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from November to May.
- 82 m³/sJan
- 62 m³/sFeb
- 73 m³/sMar
- 76 m³/sApr
- 69 m³/sMay
- 41 m³/sJun
- 18 m³/sJul
- 12 m³/sAug
- 18 m³/sSep
- 39 m³/sOct
- 70 m³/sNov
- 79 m³/sDec
From about 12 m³/s in the lowest month to 82 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 4,037 km².
Follow the Aveyron 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.
- 7other cave entrances within 3 kmGrotte de Cabéou, Grotte, Grotte de Mayrière supérieure and 4 more
- 1springs within 2 km
- 5viewpoints within 3 kmVue sur Bruniquel, Galerie, Belvédère and 2 more
- 1marked hiking routes within 3 kmDe Tours à Toulouse 05, Vers - Cahuzac
- 1climbing crags within 3 kmLa Madelaine
- 6car parks within 2 km
- 2information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 1bus stops within 2 km
- 5campsites within 8 kmLe paysel, Le Fiscalou, Camping Aici Sem Pla and 2 more
- 22hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmCornélia, Château de la Vère, Les Gorges de L'Aveyron and 19 more
- 5restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 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
- Montricoux4.8 km in a straight line
- Nègrepelisse12 km in a straight line
- Monclar-de-Quercy13 km in a straight line
- Septfonds14 km in a straight line
- Monteils14 km in a straight line
- Caussade16 km in a straight line
- Saint-Etienne-de-Tulmont17 km in a straight line
- Réalville17 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Bruniquel 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.
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 | 9 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 21 | 26 | 29 | 29 | 25 | 20 | 13 | 9 |
| Afternoon | 9 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 21 | 26 | 29 | 29 | 25 | 20 | 13 | 9 |
| Night | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 10 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 13 | 9 | 5 | 2 |
| Rain (mm) | 66 | 46 | 59 | 68 | 73 | 55 | 42 | 47 | 46 | 60 | 68 | 62 |
| Rainy days | 12 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 12 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.7 | 4.4 | 5.5 | 6.6 | 7.4 | 9.0 | 9.3 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 5.3 | 3.3 | 2.8 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 6 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 9 | 9 | 1 | 66 | 2.7 |
| Feb | 10 | 10 | 1 | 46 | 4.4 |
| Mar | 14 | 14 | 4 | 59 | 5.5 |
| Apr | 18 | 18 | 7 | 68 | 6.6 |
| May | 21 | 21 | 10 | 73 | 7.4 |
| Jun | 26 | 26 | 14 | 55 | 9.0 |
| Jul | 29 | 29 | 16 | 42 | 9.3 |
| Aug | 29 | 29 | 16 | 47 | 8.5 |
| Sep | 25 | 25 | 13 | 46 | 7.5 |
| Oct | 20 | 20 | 9 | 60 | 5.3 |
| Nov | 13 | 13 | 5 | 68 | 3.3 |
| Dec | 9 | 9 | 2 | 62 | 2.8 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (162 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 | 68% | 86% | 128% | 99% | 114% | 151% | 20% | 97% | 173% | 193% | 36% | 253% |
| 2021 | 115% | 119% | 30% | 35% | 106% | 192% | 171% | 42% | 203% | 63% | 112% | 162% |
| 2022 | 68% | 54% | 87% | 98% | 20% | 134% | 27% | 52% | 133% | 23% | 153% | 60% |
| 2023 | 119% | 32% | 106% | 88% | 102% | 187% | 69% | 81% | 98% | 109% | 201% | 128% |
| 2024 | 57% | 185% | 139% | 76% | 145% | 132% | 101% | 67% | 195% | 178% | 65% | 80% |
| 2025 | 61% | 18% | 37% | 42% | 33% | 34% | 27% | 56% | 44% | 27% | 41% | 39% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Bruniquel Cave
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 162 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Pech Merle cave
France · 50 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 287 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q3117121) · 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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