Libya Cave World Heritage
Cave of the Nymphs, Cyrene
17 °C inside, all year.
joepyrek from Richmond, Va, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0
The descent
The entrance, at 578 m.
The real relief above Cave of the Nymphs, Cyrene, 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.
578m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
17°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
54m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
17 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 17 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 25 °C at the entrance, 8 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- 13°10°Jan
- 13°9°Feb
- 15°10°Mar
- 17°12°Apr
- 20°15°May
- 23°18°Jun
- 25°21°Jul
- 25°21°Aug
- 24°20°Sep
- 22°18°Oct
- 18°15°Nov
- 15°12°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/grotto/rocks in Cyrene, Libya
Cave of the Nymphs, Cyrene is a cave in Libya. The entrance is at 578 m. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Shahhatnearest town · 3.1 km in a straight line
- Al Abraq International Airport (LAQ)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 11 km in a straight line
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.
- 1campsites within 8 kmغابة السلفيوم)(كشاف شحات)
- 34hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmنسيم الجبل, فندق البيضاء السياحي, فندق المدينة-البيضاء and 31 more
- 9restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- other cave entrances within 3 km
- 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
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
- Shahhat3.1 km in a straight line
- Wardāmah5.2 km in a straight line
- Al Bayḑā’10 km in a straight line
- Qirnādah12 km in a straight line
- Sūsah14 km in a straight line
- Al Abraq16 km in a straight line
- Massah21 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Cave of the Nymphs, Cyrene.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas5 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 | 13 | 13 | 15 | 17 | 20 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 24 | 22 | 18 | 15 |
| Afternoon | 13 | 13 | 15 | 17 | 20 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 24 | 22 | 18 | 15 |
| Night | 10 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 21 | 21 | 20 | 18 | 15 | 12 |
| Rain (mm) | 44 | 37 | 20 | 9 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 28 | 32 | 63 |
| Rainy days | 8 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 10 |
| Sun hours/day | 5.4 | 6.2 | 8.3 | 9.6 | 10.9 | 12.3 | 12.4 | 11.4 | 9.7 | 7.8 | 6.2 | 4.9 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 13 | 13 | 10 | 44 | 5.4 |
| Feb | 13 | 13 | 9 | 37 | 6.2 |
| Mar | 15 | 15 | 10 | 20 | 8.3 |
| Apr | 17 | 17 | 12 | 9 | 9.6 |
| May | 20 | 20 | 15 | 11 | 10.9 |
| Jun | 23 | 23 | 18 | 2 | 12.3 |
| Jul | 25 | 25 | 21 | 0 | 12.4 |
| Aug | 25 | 25 | 21 | 1 | 11.4 |
| Sep | 24 | 24 | 20 | 12 | 9.7 |
| Oct | 22 | 22 | 18 | 28 | 7.8 |
| Nov | 18 | 18 | 15 | 32 | 6.2 |
| Dec | 15 | 15 | 12 | 63 | 4.9 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (578 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 | 262% | 43% | 634% | 40% | 0% | — | — | — | 2% | 20% | 273% | 298% |
| 2021 | 122% | 56% | 76% | 7% | 0% | — | — | — | 66% | 60% | 98% | 225% |
| 2022 | 350% | 194% | 233% | 7% | 53% | — | — | — | 110% | 84% | 103% | 10% |
| 2023 | 367% | 305% | 26% | 200% | 1,223% | — | — | — | 1,200% | 0% | 21% | 58% |
| 2024 | 158% | 111% | 11% | 0% | 17% | — | — | — | 46% | 21% | 15% | 119% |
| 2025 | 50% | 7% | 42% | 147% | 11% | — | — | — | 0% | 12% | 36% | 103% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Cave of the Nymphs, Cyrene
Libya
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 578 mEntrance altitude
- 17 °CInside, all year
Idaean Cave
Greece · 383 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,511 mEntrance altitude
- 11 °CInside, all year
Arkoudiotissa Cave
Greece · 374 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 207 mEntrance altitude
- 19 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q104677766) · 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.
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Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit 
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit 
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Every cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.You are here
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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
Every viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.Coming soonVisit 
birdwatching
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