France Cave with prehistoric art
Grotte de Bédeilhac
11 °C inside, all year.
Thilo Parg · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 774 m.
The real relief above Grotte de Bédeilhac, 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.
774m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
11°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
272m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
11 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 11 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 27 °C at the entrance, 16 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from July to August.
- 7°-1°Jan
- 8°-2°Feb
- 11°1°Mar
- 15°4°Apr
- 19°7°May
- 24°12°Jun
- 27°14°Jul
- 27°13°Aug
- 22°10°Sep
- 18°7°Oct
- 11°2°Nov
- 8°0°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 France
Grotte de Bédeilhac is a cave with prehistoric art in France. The entrance is at 774 m. It is closed to the public to protect it.
Getting there.
- No public accessProtected for science or for its art. Look for a replica or a visitor centre nearby.
- Tarascon-sur-Ariègenearest town · 3.9 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 2.5 km from the entrance
- Pirineus - la Seu d'Urgel Airport (LEU)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 61 km in a straight lineCar hire at CCF airport (Carcassonne)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.
- 11other cave entrances within 3 kmGrotte de Bédeilhac, Grotte de Siech, Traoucos du Roc de Sedour and 8 more
- 2springs within 2 kmFontaine de Font-Sainte
- 3viewpoints within 3 kmCastella
- 4marked hiking routes within 3 kmCamí de l'Últim Càtar, Chemin de Génat, Le plateau de Génat and 1 more
- 13climbing crags within 3 kmCalamès, Secteur Le col, Secteur Vire aux Chèvres and 10 more
- 17car parks within 2 km
- 6information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 1bus stops within 2 km
- 7campsites within 8 kmAriège Evasion, La Prairie, Camping des Grottes and 4 more
- 24hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmLes Carcis Gite, Hostellerie de la poste, Gite Le Souleillan Le Chalet and 21 more
- 14restaurants and cafés within 3 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
- Tarascon-sur-Ariège3.9 km in a straight line
- Mercus-Garrabet4.8 km in a straight line
- Saint-Paul-de-Jarrat8.7 km in a straight line
- Montgaillard8.8 km in a straight line
- Foix11 km in a straight line
- Varilhes20 km in a straight line
- Villeneuve-d'Olmes21 km in a straight line
- Lavelanet24 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Grotte de Bédeilhac.
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 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 15 | 19 | 24 | 27 | 27 | 22 | 18 | 11 | 8 |
| Afternoon | 7 | 8 | 11 | 15 | 19 | 24 | 27 | 27 | 22 | 18 | 11 | 8 |
| Night | -1 | -2 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 0 |
| Rain (mm) | 76 | 60 | 64 | 76 | 82 | 56 | 47 | 50 | 53 | 68 | 84 | 67 |
| Rainy days | 12 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 12 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.8 | 4.6 | 6.0 | 6.8 | 7.3 | 8.7 | 9.0 | 8.4 | 7.4 | 5.4 | 3.5 | 3.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 11 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 10 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 7 | 7 | -1 | 76 | 2.8 |
| Feb | 8 | 8 | -2 | 60 | 4.6 |
| Mar | 11 | 11 | 1 | 64 | 6.0 |
| Apr | 15 | 15 | 4 | 76 | 6.8 |
| May | 19 | 19 | 7 | 82 | 7.3 |
| Jun | 24 | 24 | 12 | 56 | 8.7 |
| Jul | 27 | 27 | 14 | 47 | 9.0 |
| Aug | 27 | 27 | 13 | 50 | 8.4 |
| Sep | 22 | 22 | 10 | 53 | 7.4 |
| Oct | 18 | 18 | 7 | 68 | 5.4 |
| Nov | 11 | 11 | 2 | 84 | 3.5 |
| Dec | 8 | 8 | 0 | 67 | 3.0 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (774 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 | 89% | 55% | 141% | 143% | 119% | 177% | 83% | 118% | 174% | 201% | 68% | 205% |
| 2021 | 99% | 77% | 29% | 43% | 61% | 139% | 89% | 50% | 155% | 58% | 127% | 123% |
| 2022 | 54% | 34% | 93% | 79% | 37% | 77% | 68% | 86% | 143% | 22% | 115% | 49% |
| 2023 | 96% | 36% | 55% | 61% | 98% | 196% | 86% | 99% | 75% | 90% | 123% | 95% |
| 2024 | 53% | 120% | 124% | 70% | 95% | 104% | 67% | 72% | 160% | 175% | 43% | 76% |
| 2025 | 37% | 17% | 124% | 49% | 44% | 31% | 90% | 93% | 76% | 17% | 47% | 57% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Grotte de Bédeilhac
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 774 mEntrance altitude
- 11 °CInside, all year
Cave of Niaux
France · 6 km
- —Depth
- 2.0 kmGalleries
- 718 mEntrance altitude
- 11 °CInside, all year
Sabart cave
France · 5 km
- 136 mDepth
- 2.8 kmGalleries
- 582 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q3117126) · 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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