Spain Cave with prehistoric art World Heritage
Cueva de Covalanas
13 °C inside, all year.
Nachosan · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 332 m.
The real relief above Cueva de Covalanas, 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.
332m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
13°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
377m
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 August the afternoon reaches 26 °C at the entrance, 13 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- 10°4°Jan
- 11°3°Feb
- 14°5°Mar
- 17°7°Apr
- 20°10°May
- 24°13°Jun
- 26°15°Jul
- 26°15°Aug
- 24°13°Sep
- 20°10°Oct
- 14°7°Nov
- 11°4°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.
Cultural property in Ramales de la Victoria, Spain
Cueva de Covalanas is a cave with prehistoric art in Spain. The entrance is at 332 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.
- Ramales de la Victorianearest town · 1.7 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.0 km from the entrance
- Seve Ballesteros-Santander Airport (SDR)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 36 km in a straight lineCar hire at SDR airport (Santander)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.
- 15other cave entrances within 3 kmTorca del Moro 22, Cueva de Cullalvera, Cueva de la Monedas and 12 more
- 3sinkholes within 3 kmLa Torca de Callejomadero
- 5viewpoints within 3 kmMirador de Covalanas and 4 more
- 2marked hiking routes within 3 kmRuta de Carlos V, Bizkaiko bira
- 51car parks within 2 km
- 5information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 2bus stops within 2 km
- 3campsites within 8 kmCamping Ramales, Parque de Caravanas de Lanestosa, Camping San Zipriano
- 19hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmCasa Tomás, Balneario Casa Pallotti, Albergue La Brena and 16 more
- 8restaurants 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
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
- Ramales de la Victoria1.7 km in a straight line
- Lanestosa3.1 km in a straight line
- Rasines6.9 km in a straight line
- Ampuero11 km in a straight line
- Arredondo12 km in a straight line
- Limpias13 km in a straight line
- Colindres17 km in a straight line
- Laredo18 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Cueva de Covalanas.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas3 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 | 10 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 24 | 26 | 26 | 24 | 20 | 14 | 11 |
| Afternoon | 10 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 24 | 26 | 26 | 24 | 20 | 14 | 11 |
| Night | 4 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 13 | 10 | 7 | 4 |
| Rain (mm) | 97 | 82 | 78 | 73 | 63 | 52 | 35 | 37 | 50 | 85 | 119 | 96 |
| Rainy days | 14 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 14 | 16 | 14 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.4 | 3.6 | 5.1 | 6.2 | 7.1 | 7.4 | 7.8 | 7.4 | 6.7 | 4.7 | 2.9 | 2.6 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 7 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 10 | 10 | 4 | 97 | 2.4 |
| Feb | 11 | 11 | 3 | 82 | 3.6 |
| Mar | 14 | 14 | 5 | 78 | 5.1 |
| Apr | 17 | 17 | 7 | 73 | 6.2 |
| May | 20 | 20 | 10 | 63 | 7.1 |
| Jun | 24 | 24 | 13 | 52 | 7.4 |
| Jul | 26 | 26 | 15 | 35 | 7.8 |
| Aug | 26 | 26 | 15 | 37 | 7.4 |
| Sep | 24 | 24 | 13 | 50 | 6.7 |
| Oct | 20 | 20 | 10 | 85 | 4.7 |
| Nov | 14 | 14 | 7 | 119 | 2.9 |
| Dec | 11 | 11 | 4 | 96 | 2.6 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (332 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 | 45% | 29% | 149% | 131% | 119% | 158% | 63% | 143% | 175% | 239% | 32% | 273% |
| 2021 | 139% | 103% | 33% | 70% | 79% | 193% | 76% | 58% | 146% | 63% | 180% | 182% |
| 2022 | 65% | 28% | 111% | 114% | 36% | 72% | 24% | 84% | 155% | 38% | 108% | 83% |
| 2023 | 194% | 62% | 29% | 35% | 80% | 123% | 58% | 105% | 147% | 84% | 107% | 75% |
| 2024 | 78% | 128% | 96% | 42% | 117% | 108% | 53% | 160% | 234% | 165% | 55% | 99% |
| 2025 | 64% | 59% | 162% | 81% | 92% | 76% | 84% | 124% | 108% | 37% | 117% | 83% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Cueva de Covalanas
Spain
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 332 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Cave of Altamira
Spain · 56 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 95 mEntrance altitude
- 15 °CInside, all year
Cave of El Castillo
Spain · 42 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 201 mEntrance altitude
- 14 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q555083) · 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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