Spain Cave with prehistoric art World Heritage
Cueva de El Pendo
15 °C inside, all year.
Codigowiki · CC BY-SA 3.0 es
The descent
The entrance, at 85 m.
The real relief above Cueva de El Pendo, 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.
85m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
15°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
197m
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
- 13°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
Cueva de El Pendo is a cave with prehistoric art in Spain. The entrance is at 85 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.
- Camargonearest town · 3.1 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 2.4 km from the entrance
- Seve Ballesteros-Santander Airport (SDR)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 9 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.
- 44other cave entrances within 3 kmCueva del Pendo, Cueva de Peñajorao XXII, Los Covachos and 41 more
- 3viewpoints within 3 kmMirador de la Cotera
- 3marked hiking routes within 3 kmCamino del Norte (Cantabria)
- 8car parks within 2 km
- 1information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 10bus stops within 2 km
- 2campsites within 8 kmÁrea de autocaravanas de Cabárceno, Aparcamiento para autocaravanas
- 54hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmHotel Bedoya, San Luis, Hotel Las Anclas and 51 more
- 8restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 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
- Camargo3.1 km in a straight line
- Arce3.4 km in a straight line
- Renedo5.0 km in a straight line
- Vioño5.3 km in a straight line
- Boo5.5 km in a straight line
- Santa Cruz de Bezana6.2 km in a straight line
- El Astillero7.5 km in a straight line
- Liencres8.1 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Cueva de El Pendo.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Figures 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 | 13 |
| Afternoon | 12 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 18 | 21 | 23 | 24 | 22 | 20 | 15 | 13 |
| Night | 8 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 16 | 18 | 19 | 17 | 15 | 11 | 9 |
| Rain (mm) | 125 | 100 | 95 | 78 | 62 | 54 | 34 | 34 | 51 | 100 | 141 | 121 |
| Rainy days | 15 | 13 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 14 | 16 | 14 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.4 | 3.6 | 5.1 | 6.2 | 7.2 | 7.5 | 7.8 | 7.4 | 6.7 | 4.7 | 2.8 | 2.6 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 12 | 12 | 8 | 125 | 2.4 |
| Feb | 12 | 12 | 8 | 100 | 3.6 |
| Mar | 14 | 14 | 9 | 95 | 5.1 |
| Apr | 15 | 15 | 11 | 78 | 6.2 |
| May | 18 | 18 | 13 | 62 | 7.2 |
| Jun | 21 | 21 | 16 | 54 | 7.5 |
| Jul | 23 | 23 | 18 | 34 | 7.8 |
| Aug | 24 | 24 | 19 | 34 | 7.4 |
| Sep | 22 | 22 | 17 | 51 | 6.7 |
| Oct | 20 | 20 | 15 | 100 | 4.7 |
| Nov | 15 | 15 | 11 | 141 | 2.8 |
| Dec | 13 | 13 | 9 | 121 | 2.6 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (85 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 | 37% | 27% | 145% | 141% | 119% | 136% | 56% | 179% | 211% | 241% | 28% | 312% |
| 2021 | 176% | 113% | 36% | 68% | 94% | 229% | 119% | 89% | 159% | 66% | 215% | 195% |
| 2022 | 63% | 33% | 122% | 111% | 34% | 94% | 23% | 116% | 227% | 35% | 111% | 96% |
| 2023 | 219% | 74% | 35% | 42% | 87% | 144% | 81% | 115% | 204% | 105% | 128% | 92% |
| 2024 | 103% | 160% | 122% | 53% | 152% | 111% | 68% | 212% | 268% | 203% | 70% | 100% |
| 2025 | 70% | 70% | 142% | 96% | 95% | 75% | 142% | 188% | 153% | 33% | 131% | 105% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q798018) · 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.



