Ukraine Tanya Troyan · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 179 m.
The real relief above Crystal 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.
179m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
9°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
118m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
9 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 9 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 27 °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 May to July: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 0°-7°Jan
- 2°-6°Feb
- 8°-2°Mar
- 16°4°Apr
- 21°10°May
- 25°14°Jun
- 27°16°Jul
- 27°15°Aug
- 22°10°Sep
- 14°4°Oct
- 7°0°Nov
- 1°-5°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 Ukraine
Crystal Cave is a cave in Ukraine. The entrance is at 179 m. It has an underground river.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Melnytsya-Podilskanearest town · 11 km in a straight line
- Suceava Ștefan cel Mare International Airport (SCV)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 113 km in a straight lineCar hire at IFO airport (Ivano-Frankivsk)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 the river runs highest from March to July.
The the river carries about 0.82 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from March to July. It is lowest in December.
- 0.7 m³/sJan
- 1.2 m³/sFeb
- 2.1 m³/sMar
- 2.4 m³/sApr
- 2.3 m³/sMay
- 2.4 m³/sJun
- 2.2 m³/sJul
- 1.6 m³/sAug
- 1.2 m³/sSep
- 1.2 m³/sOct
- 0.8 m³/sNov
- 0.4 m³/sDec
From about 0.37 m³/s in the lowest month to 2.4 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 170 km².
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.
- 1other cave entrances within 3 kmГеологічна пам'ятка природи "Печера "Кришталева"
- 2car parks within 2 km
- 1restaurants and cafés 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
- information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- campsites within 8 km
- hotels and guesthouses within 8 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
- Melnytsya-Podilska11 km in a straight line
- Perebykivtsi12 km in a straight line
- Borshchiv13 km in a straight line
- Vikno16 km in a straight line
- Horoshova16 km in a straight line
- Balamutivka18 km in a straight line
- Pohorilivka18 km in a straight line
- Bilche-Zolote18 km in a straight line
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 0 | 2 | 8 | 16 | 21 | 25 | 27 | 27 | 22 | 14 | 7 | 1 |
| Afternoon | 0 | 2 | 8 | 16 | 21 | 25 | 27 | 27 | 22 | 14 | 7 | 1 |
| Night | -7 | -6 | -2 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 10 | 4 | 0 | -5 |
| Rain (mm) | 33 | 36 | 44 | 48 | 75 | 96 | 90 | 63 | 50 | 50 | 39 | 36 |
| Rainy days | 8 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 9 |
| Sun hours/day | 1.9 | 3.2 | 4.9 | 6.8 | 8.1 | 8.6 | 8.7 | 8.4 | 6.2 | 4.1 | 1.4 | 1.2 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 18 | 17 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 17 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 0 | 0 | -7 | 33 | 1.9 |
| Feb | 2 | 2 | -6 | 36 | 3.2 |
| Mar | 8 | 8 | -2 | 44 | 4.9 |
| Apr | 16 | 16 | 4 | 48 | 6.8 |
| May | 21 | 21 | 10 | 75 | 8.1 |
| Jun | 25 | 25 | 14 | 96 | 8.6 |
| Jul | 27 | 27 | 16 | 90 | 8.7 |
| Aug | 27 | 27 | 15 | 63 | 8.4 |
| Sep | 22 | 22 | 10 | 50 | 6.2 |
| Oct | 14 | 14 | 4 | 50 | 4.1 |
| Nov | 7 | 7 | 0 | 39 | 1.4 |
| Dec | 1 | 1 | -5 | 36 | 1.2 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (179 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 | 39% | 151% | 81% | 47% | 136% | 127% | 98% | 39% | 156% | 151% | 36% | 144% |
| 2021 | 91% | 150% | 134% | 84% | 127% | 92% | 105% | 130% | 61% | 7% | 42% | 260% |
| 2022 | 82% | 53% | 20% | 99% | 36% | 42% | 76% | 109% | 198% | 52% | 211% | 104% |
| 2023 | 76% | 140% | 67% | 230% | 34% | 76% | 82% | 105% | 68% | 85% | 131% | 104% |
| 2024 | 145% | 118% | 86% | 150% | 45% | 74% | 86% | 61% | 249% | 57% | 99% | 140% |
| 2025 | 53% | 19% | 69% | 94% | 220% | 19% | 165% | 48% | 203% | 139% | 101% | 75% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Crystal Cave
Ukraine
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 179 mEntrance altitude
- 9 °CInside, all year
Optymistychna Cave
Ukraine · 10 km
- 20 mDepth
- 265 kmGalleries
- 276 mEntrance altitude
- 9 °CInside, all year
Priest's Grotto
Ukraine · 12 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 212 mEntrance altitude
- 9 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q3918023) · 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 |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
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