France GaMip · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 109 m.
The real relief above Grottes de Lacave, 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.
109m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
13°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
180m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
97,483
Visitors a year
published (Wikidata)
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 28 °C at the entrance, 15 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from July to August.
- 8°1°Jan
- 10°1°Feb
- 14°4°Mar
- 17°6°Apr
- 21°10°May
- 25°14°Jun
- 28°16°Jul
- 28°16°Aug
- 25°12°Sep
- 19°9°Oct
- 13°4°Nov
- 9°1°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
Grottes de Lacave is a show cave in France. The entrance is at 109 m. It has an underground river and stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsticket requiredOfficial site↗
- Souillacnearest town · 8.8 km in a straight line
- Parking 80 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.2 km from the entrance
- Brive Souillac airport (BVE)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 22 km in a straight lineCar hire at BVE airport (Brive)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.
The water
The La Dordogne runs highest from December to May.
The La Dordogne carries about 180 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from December to May.
- 284 m³/sJan
- 240 m³/sFeb
- 250 m³/sMar
- 247 m³/sApr
- 252 m³/sMay
- 184 m³/sJun
- 104 m³/sJul
- 57 m³/sAug
- 50 m³/sSep
- 106 m³/sOct
- 191 m³/sNov
- 257 m³/sDec
From about 50 m³/s in the lowest month to 284 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 7,569 km².
Follow the Dordogne from source to mouth on Riveryas
Estimate: long-term flow from the HydroATLAS model (WaterGAP, 1971–2000) shaped by the monthly rain, snow and temperature of the area (NASA POWER). Dams change it. Not a forecast.
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.
- 10other cave entrances within 3 kmGrottes de Lacave, Émergence de Meyraguet, Font del Truffe and 7 more
- 1springs within 2 kmSource des Carbonnières
- 1sinkholes within 3 kmGouffres du Limon
- 8viewpoints within 3 kmPech de Pinsac, Roc des Monges and 6 more
- 5marked hiking routes within 3 kmGouffre et résurgence du Limon - Grottes de Lacave, Étape 21 • Chemin d'Amadour, Le chemin des écoliers and 2 more
- 7car parks within 2 km
- 1information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 30campsites within 8 kmCamping Le Pic, Camping Les Borgnes, Camping à la ferme and 27 more
- 56hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmLe Pavillon Saint-Martin, Le Pont de l'Ouysse, Maison Neuve and 53 more
- 4restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- bus stops within 2 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
- Souillac8.8 km in a straight line
- Martel11 km in a straight line
- Le Vigan-en-Quercy15 km in a straight line
- Gramat15 km in a straight line
- Vayrac16 km in a straight line
- Gourdon19 km in a straight line
- Eyvigues-et-Eybènes19 km in a straight line
- Carsac-Aillac22 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Grottes de Lacave.
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 | 8 | 10 | 14 | 17 | 21 | 25 | 28 | 28 | 25 | 19 | 13 | 9 |
| Afternoon | 8 | 10 | 14 | 17 | 21 | 25 | 28 | 28 | 25 | 19 | 13 | 9 |
| Night | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 12 | 9 | 4 | 1 |
| Rain (mm) | 73 | 51 | 68 | 76 | 82 | 67 | 52 | 56 | 52 | 66 | 74 | 71 |
| Rainy days | 12 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 13 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.5 | 4.1 | 5.3 | 6.4 | 7.0 | 8.7 | 8.9 | 8.1 | 7.2 | 4.9 | 3.1 | 2.6 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 6 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 8 | 8 | 1 | 73 | 2.5 |
| Feb | 10 | 10 | 1 | 51 | 4.1 |
| Mar | 14 | 14 | 4 | 68 | 5.3 |
| Apr | 17 | 17 | 6 | 76 | 6.4 |
| May | 21 | 21 | 10 | 82 | 7.0 |
| Jun | 25 | 25 | 14 | 67 | 8.7 |
| Jul | 28 | 28 | 16 | 52 | 8.9 |
| Aug | 28 | 28 | 16 | 56 | 8.1 |
| Sep | 25 | 25 | 12 | 52 | 7.2 |
| Oct | 19 | 19 | 9 | 66 | 4.9 |
| Nov | 13 | 13 | 4 | 74 | 3.1 |
| Dec | 9 | 9 | 1 | 71 | 2.6 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (109 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 | 61% | 94% | 98% | 70% | 80% | 121% | 11% | 109% | 117% | 191% | 32% | 199% |
| 2021 | 106% | 127% | 33% | 36% | 118% | 195% | 108% | 43% | 185% | 60% | 57% | 144% |
| 2022 | 40% | 60% | 68% | 79% | 30% | 170% | 11% | 60% | 93% | 39% | 101% | 75% |
| 2023 | 75% | 29% | 102% | 79% | 69% | 143% | 57% | 86% | 71% | 148% | 193% | 164% |
| 2024 | 67% | 185% | 184% | 90% | 175% | 121% | 70% | 27% | 228% | 155% | 57% | 68% |
| 2025 | 84% | 32% | 36% | 59% | 23% | 73% | 18% | 38% | 56% | 49% | 50% | 33% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Grottes de Lacave
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 109 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Font-de-Gaume cave
France · 43 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 91 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q3117260) · 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 |
| River flow and basin | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| 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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