Spain Cave with prehistoric art World Heritage
Cave of Altxerri
15 °C inside, all year.
GipuzkoaKultura · CC BY-SA 2.0
The descent
The entrance, at 27 m.
The real relief above Cave of Altxerri, 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.
27m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
15°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
153m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
15 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 15 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 24 °C at the entrance, 9 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- 12°8°Jan
- 12°8°Feb
- 14°9°Mar
- 15°11°Apr
- 18°13°May
- 21°16°Jun
- 23°18°Jul
- 24°19°Aug
- 22°17°Sep
- 20°15°Oct
- 15°11°Nov
- 12°9°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 Spain
Cave of Altxerri is a cave with prehistoric art in Spain. The entrance is at 27 m. It is closed to the public to protect it. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- No public accessProtected for science or for its art. Look for a replica or a visitor centre nearby.
- Orionearest town · 1.4 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 1.3 km from the entrance
- San Sebastián Airport (EAS)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 30 km in a straight lineCar hire at BIQ airport (Biarritz)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.
- 1other cave entrances within 3 kmAltxerri
- 12viewpoints within 3 km
- 9marked hiking routes within 3 kmE04 Talaia ibilbidea: Orio - Zumaia, Camino del Norte (Euskal Herria), E03 Talaia ibilbidea: Donostia - Orio and 6 more
- 1climbing crags within 3 kmKlimb
- 33car parks within 2 km
- 31information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 7bus stops within 2 km
- 9campsites within 8 kmPortuko aparkalekua, Gran Camping Zarautz, Camping Talaimendi and 6 more
- 72hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmAlbergue Txurruka alterpea, Txiki Polit, Agroturismo Maddiola and 69 more
- 44restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 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
- Orio1.4 km in a straight line
- Zarautz3.3 km in a straight line
- Getaria6.8 km in a straight line
- Usurbil6.9 km in a straight line
- Asteasu8.8 km in a straight line
- Lasarte9.2 km in a straight line
- Oria9.5 km in a straight line
- Zumaia10 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Cave of Altxerri.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas13 mountains within 10 km
Coastya1 beaches within 3 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 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 18 | 21 | 23 | 24 | 22 | 20 | 15 | 12 |
| Afternoon | 12 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 18 | 21 | 23 | 24 | 22 | 20 | 15 | 12 |
| Night | 8 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 16 | 18 | 19 | 17 | 15 | 11 | 9 |
| Rain (mm) | 126 | 96 | 90 | 86 | 82 | 68 | 48 | 50 | 64 | 94 | 149 | 117 |
| Rainy days | 14 | 13 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 15 | 14 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.6 | 4.0 | 5.5 | 6.3 | 7.2 | 8.1 | 8.4 | 7.8 | 7.1 | 4.9 | 3.2 | 2.8 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 12 | 12 | 8 | 126 | 2.6 |
| Feb | 12 | 12 | 8 | 96 | 4.0 |
| Mar | 14 | 14 | 9 | 90 | 5.5 |
| Apr | 15 | 15 | 11 | 86 | 6.3 |
| May | 18 | 18 | 13 | 82 | 7.2 |
| Jun | 21 | 21 | 16 | 68 | 8.1 |
| Jul | 23 | 23 | 18 | 48 | 8.4 |
| Aug | 24 | 24 | 19 | 50 | 7.8 |
| Sep | 22 | 22 | 17 | 64 | 7.1 |
| Oct | 20 | 20 | 15 | 94 | 4.9 |
| Nov | 15 | 15 | 11 | 149 | 3.2 |
| Dec | 12 | 12 | 9 | 117 | 2.8 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (27 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 | 46% | 41% | 167% | 125% | 133% | 132% | 56% | 139% | 187% | 252% | 25% | 312% |
| 2021 | 131% | 103% | 28% | 59% | 86% | 196% | 84% | 55% | 216% | 69% | 156% | 196% |
| 2022 | 65% | 40% | 110% | 121% | 25% | 86% | 19% | 111% | 173% | 37% | 132% | 68% |
| 2023 | 161% | 52% | 58% | 82% | 75% | 144% | 64% | 118% | 182% | 140% | 165% | 123% |
| 2024 | 70% | 188% | 152% | 77% | 139% | 143% | 65% | 188% | 260% | 223% | 59% | 113% |
| 2025 | 123% | 58% | 110% | 92% | 122% | 97% | 102% | 139% | 105% | 44% | 107% | 83% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Cave of Altxerri
Spain
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 27 mEntrance altitude
- 15 °CInside, all year
Santimamiñe kobazuloa
Spain · 42 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 164 mEntrance altitude
- 14 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q361060) · 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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