France Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 551 m.
The real relief above Caves of Gargas, 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.
551m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
12°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
223m
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 August the afternoon reaches 28 °C at the entrance, 15 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from July to August.
- 9°1°Jan
- 9°0°Feb
- 13°3°Mar
- 16°6°Apr
- 20°9°May
- 25°14°Jun
- 28°15°Jul
- 28°15°Aug
- 24°12°Sep
- 20°9°Oct
- 13°4°Nov
- 10°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
Caves of Gargas is a show cave in France. The entrance is at 551 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.
- Gourdan-Polignannearest town · 3.6 km in a straight line
- Parking 50 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Moulidénearest viewpoint · 1.5 km from the entrance
- Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrénées Airport (LDE)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 46 km in a straight lineCar hire at LDE airport (Tarbes/Lourdes/Pyrénées)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.
- 5other cave entrances within 3 kmGrottes de Gargas (sortie), Grottes de Gargas, Puits de Ganties-Montespan and 2 more
- 1sinkholes within 3 kmGouffre de Lespugues
- 1viewpoints within 3 kmMoulidé
- 6marked hiking routes within 3 kmChemin du Piémont Pyrénéen, Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges : au coeur du Comminges, Via Garona and 3 more
- 11car parks within 2 km
- 3information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 5campsites within 8 kmCamping le Rural, Camping Es Pibous, Camping Municipal des Bords de la Garonne and 2 more
- 31hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmLe Monastère du Mont-Arès, Hôtel du Comminges, Candide and 28 more
- 3restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 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
- Gourdan-Polignan3.6 km in a straight line
- Montréjeau4.3 km in a straight line
- Labarthe-Rivière11 km in a straight line
- La Barthe-de-Neste13 km in a straight line
- Villeneuve-de-Rivière13 km in a straight line
- Lannemezan15 km in a straight line
- Saint-Gaudens16 km in a straight line
- Capvern19 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Caves of Gargas.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Lakeyas1 lakes within 10 km
Peakyas2 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 | 9 | 9 | 13 | 16 | 20 | 25 | 28 | 28 | 24 | 20 | 13 | 10 |
| Afternoon | 9 | 9 | 13 | 16 | 20 | 25 | 28 | 28 | 24 | 20 | 13 | 10 |
| Night | 1 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 12 | 9 | 4 | 2 |
| Rain (mm) | 84 | 66 | 71 | 85 | 96 | 65 | 55 | 55 | 57 | 68 | 89 | 70 |
| Rainy days | 12 | 10 | 11 | 14 | 14 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 12 |
| Sun hours/day | 3.0 | 4.7 | 6.0 | 6.7 | 7.1 | 8.3 | 8.6 | 8.1 | 7.4 | 5.4 | 3.7 | 3.2 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 12 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 11 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 9 | 9 | 1 | 84 | 3.0 |
| Feb | 9 | 9 | 0 | 66 | 4.7 |
| Mar | 13 | 13 | 3 | 71 | 6.0 |
| Apr | 16 | 16 | 6 | 85 | 6.7 |
| May | 20 | 20 | 9 | 96 | 7.1 |
| Jun | 25 | 25 | 14 | 65 | 8.3 |
| Jul | 28 | 28 | 15 | 55 | 8.6 |
| Aug | 28 | 28 | 15 | 55 | 8.1 |
| Sep | 24 | 24 | 12 | 57 | 7.4 |
| Oct | 20 | 20 | 9 | 68 | 5.4 |
| Nov | 13 | 13 | 4 | 89 | 3.7 |
| Dec | 10 | 10 | 2 | 70 | 3.2 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (551 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 | 60% | 51% | 139% | 136% | 109% | 153% | 58% | 83% | 169% | 217% | 48% | 206% |
| 2021 | 89% | 47% | 25% | 37% | 53% | 113% | 84% | 37% | 146% | 53% | 82% | 103% |
| 2022 | 45% | 30% | 77% | 66% | 32% | 82% | 46% | 69% | 116% | 39% | 89% | 52% |
| 2023 | 89% | 34% | 46% | 60% | 87% | 169% | 71% | 83% | 71% | 84% | 109% | 86% |
| 2024 | 43% | 117% | 110% | 45% | 74% | 98% | 46% | 78% | 170% | 117% | 34% | 59% |
| 2025 | 43% | 17% | 83% | 52% | 40% | 42% | 50% | 77% | 62% | 25% | 54% | 30% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Caves of Gargas
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 551 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Grotte de Montespan
France · 25 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 392 mEntrance altitude
- 14 °CInside, all year
Noisetier Cave
France · 20 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 835 mEntrance altitude
- 11 °CInside, all year
Trois Frères Cave
France · 55 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 486 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q25063) · 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
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