Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 1 m.
The real relief above Ghar Lapsi, 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.
1m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
20°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
176m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
20 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 20 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 28 °C at the entrance, 8 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are in August.
- 15°14°Jan
- 15°13°Feb
- 15°14°Mar
- 17°16°Apr
- 20°18°May
- 24°22°Jun
- 27°25°Jul
- 28°26°Aug
- 26°24°Sep
- 23°22°Oct
- 20°19°Nov
- 17°16°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.
Bay, beach and cave in Malta, European Union
Ghar Lapsi is a cave in Malta. The entrance is at 1 m. It has the sea at its mouth.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Qrendinearest town · 3.1 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.0 km from the entrance
- Malta International Airport (MLA)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 6 km in a straight lineCar hire at MLA airport (Valletta)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 kmGħar il-Kbir, Għar Lapsi, Il-Ħnejja and 2 more
- 10viewpoints within 3 kmTaħt il-Ħnejja, Dingli Cliffs Viewpoint, Il Maqluba and 7 more
- 8marked hiking routes within 3 kmMMV Tour 1, MMV Tour 3, Ħad-Dingli - Il-Fawwara - Wied iż-Żurrieq and 5 more
- 6climbing crags within 3 kmXaqqa Cliffs, Twin Caves, McCarthy's Cave and 3 more
- 9car parks within 2 km
- 1information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 11bus stops within 2 km
- 2campsites within 8 kmL-Iscouts taż-Żurrieq, wild camping
- 49hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmCorinthia Palace Hotel, Bonheur Guest House, Luciano Valletta Boutique and 46 more
- 9restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 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
- Qrendi3.1 km in a straight line
- Siġġiewi3.3 km in a straight line
- Mqabba4.5 km in a straight line
- Żurrieq4.6 km in a straight line
- Haz-Zebbug5.2 km in a straight line
- Dingli5.4 km in a straight line
- Safi5.5 km in a straight line
- Kirkop5.7 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Ghar Lapsi.
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 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 17 | 20 | 24 | 27 | 28 | 26 | 23 | 20 | 17 |
| Afternoon | 15 | 15 | 15 | 17 | 20 | 24 | 27 | 28 | 26 | 23 | 20 | 17 |
| Night | 14 | 13 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 22 | 25 | 26 | 24 | 22 | 19 | 16 |
| Rain (mm) | 74 | 65 | 51 | 33 | 17 | 11 | 4 | 10 | 63 | 82 | 95 | 82 |
| Rainy days | 11 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 12 |
| Sun hours/day | 5.2 | 6.1 | 7.5 | 8.9 | 10.6 | 11.9 | 12.4 | 11.0 | 8.7 | 6.8 | 5.3 | 4.9 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 15 | 15 | 14 | 74 | 5.2 |
| Feb | 15 | 15 | 13 | 65 | 6.1 |
| Mar | 15 | 15 | 14 | 51 | 7.5 |
| Apr | 17 | 17 | 16 | 33 | 8.9 |
| May | 20 | 20 | 18 | 17 | 10.6 |
| Jun | 24 | 24 | 22 | 11 | 11.9 |
| Jul | 27 | 27 | 25 | 4 | 12.4 |
| Aug | 28 | 28 | 26 | 10 | 11.0 |
| Sep | 26 | 26 | 24 | 63 | 8.7 |
| Oct | 23 | 23 | 22 | 82 | 6.8 |
| Nov | 20 | 20 | 19 | 95 | 5.3 |
| Dec | 17 | 17 | 16 | 82 | 4.9 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (1 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 | 11% | 2% | 144% | 35% | 36% | 11% | — | 43% | 135% | 39% | 91% | 97% |
| 2021 | 61% | 17% | 49% | 31% | 13% | 13% | — | 9% | 42% | 267% | 120% | 41% |
| 2022 | 36% | 9% | 65% | 27% | 132% | 66% | — | 341% | 74% | 42% | 108% | 17% |
| 2023 | 48% | 115% | 38% | 65% | 2,817% | 137% | — | 113% | 47% | 3% | 28% | 32% |
| 2024 | 43% | 42% | 24% | 36% | 130% | 13% | — | 176% | 42% | 29% | 38% | 22% |
| 2025 | 38% | 33% | 77% | 24% | 1,338% | 42% | — | 63% | 24% | 40% | 34% | 55% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q5627455) · 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.






