Italy Ice cave World Heritage
Grotta del Gelo
125 m below the entrance.
Enrico Zappala' · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
125 metres down, to scale.
The real relief above Grotta del Gelo, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
Big Ben (96 m) would fit upside down 1.3 times.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey.
125m
Depth
published (Wikidata)
2,043m
Entrance altitude
published (Wikidata)
0°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
328m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
0 °C inside, all year.
Cold winter air sinks into the cave and stays trapped: the ice lasts all year, even when it is hot outside. In August the afternoon reaches 20 °C at the entrance, 20 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- 1°-4°Jan
- 1°-4°Feb
- 4°-3°Mar
- 7°0°Apr
- 11°3°May
- 16°8°Jun
- 20°10°Jul
- 20°11°Aug
- 15°8°Sep
- 11°5°Oct
- 6°1°Nov
- 2°-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.
Volcanic cave of Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy
Grotta del Gelo is a ice cave in Italy. It goes down 125 m below the entrance. The entrance is at 2,043 m. It has ice all year and the shape of a lava tube. It lies within Etna Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Randazzonearest town · 8.6 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 3.4 km from the entrance
- Catania-Fontanarossa Airport (CTA)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 38 km in a straight lineCar hire at CTA airport (Catania)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.
- 53other cave entrances within 3 kmGrotta del Gelo, Grotta dei Lamponi 1, Grotta dei Lamponi 2 and 50 more
- 1viewpoints within 3 km
- 18marked hiking routes within 3 kmPista Altomontana, Pista ai Crateri Sommitali, Rifugio Monte La Nave - Grotta del Gelo and 15 more
- 2information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 11hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmEtna Quota Mille, Bed&Bike Ai Tre Parchi, Parco Statella and 8 more
- 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
- car parks within 2 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- campsites within 8 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 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
- Randazzo8.6 km in a straight line
- Maletto11 km in a straight line
- Moio Alcantara12 km in a straight line
- Santa Domenica Vittoria13 km in a straight line
- Bronte13 km in a straight line
- Linguaglossa14 km in a straight line
- Castiglione di Sicilia15 km in a straight line
- Piedimonte Etneo17 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Grotta del Gelo.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas6 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 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 16 | 20 | 20 | 15 | 11 | 6 | 2 |
| Afternoon | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 16 | 20 | 20 | 15 | 11 | 6 | 2 |
| Night | -4 | -4 | -3 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 10 | 11 | 8 | 5 | 1 | -2 |
| Rain (mm) | 76 | 68 | 60 | 44 | 21 | 19 | 10 | 16 | 60 | 76 | 89 | 88 |
| Rainy days | 13 | 12 | 11 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 11 | 14 | 15 |
| Sun hours/day | 4.1 | 5.0 | 6.7 | 8.2 | 10.0 | 11.5 | 12.1 | 10.9 | 8.1 | 6.4 | 4.6 | 3.8 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 1 | 1 | -4 | 76 | 4.1 |
| Feb | 1 | 1 | -4 | 68 | 5.0 |
| Mar | 4 | 4 | -3 | 60 | 6.7 |
| Apr | 7 | 7 | 0 | 44 | 8.2 |
| May | 11 | 11 | 3 | 21 | 10.0 |
| Jun | 16 | 16 | 8 | 19 | 11.5 |
| Jul | 20 | 20 | 10 | 10 | 12.1 |
| Aug | 20 | 20 | 11 | 16 | 10.9 |
| Sep | 15 | 15 | 8 | 60 | 8.1 |
| Oct | 11 | 11 | 5 | 76 | 6.4 |
| Nov | 6 | 6 | 1 | 89 | 4.6 |
| Dec | 2 | 2 | -2 | 88 | 3.8 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (2,043 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% | 5% | 150% | 66% | 44% | 48% | 134% | 112% | 142% | 66% | 96% | 119% |
| 2021 | 67% | 45% | 129% | 70% | 19% | 33% | 97% | 10% | 66% | 240% | 123% | 65% |
| 2022 | 42% | 32% | 56% | 45% | 155% | 25% | 28% | 290% | 47% | 40% | 108% | 32% |
| 2023 | 72% | 88% | 43% | 127% | 429% | 119% | 54% | 74% | 35% | 5% | 43% | 18% |
| 2024 | 58% | 58% | 51% | 22% | 118% | 17% | 28% | 126% | 41% | 45% | 53% | 37% |
| 2025 | 53% | 44% | 96% | 22% | 1,152% | 57% | 3% | 48% | 97% | 583% | 567% | 551% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Grotta del Gelo
Italy
- 125 mDepth
- —Galleries
- 2,043 mEntrance altitude
- 0 °CInside, all year
Grotta Delle Trabacche
Italy · 104 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 540 mEntrance altitude
- 16 °CInside, all year
Grotta dell'Addaura
Italy · 149 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 267 mEntrance altitude
- 17 °CInside, all year
Grotta Calafarina
Italy · 121 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 17 mEntrance altitude
- 19 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q3117235) · 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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