Lebanon Show cave
Jeita Grotto
22 °C inside, all year.
Freedom's Falcon · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 71 m.
The real relief above Jeita Grotto, 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.
71m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
22°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
437m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
22 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 22 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 32 °C at the entrance, 11 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from May to October. The wettest months are from November to February: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 16°11°Jan
- 17°12°Feb
- 20°13°Mar
- 23°16°Apr
- 27°19°May
- 30°23°Jun
- 32°25°Jul
- 32°25°Aug
- 31°24°Sep
- 28°21°Oct
- 23°17°Nov
- 18°13°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.
System of two separate, but interconnected, karstic limestone caves 18 km north of Beirut
Jeita Grotto is a show cave in Lebanon. The entrance is at 71 m. It has an underground river, stalactites and stalagmites and several entrances and long galleries. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsUsually with a guided tour; check times and tickets on the official site.
- Jouniehnearest town · 4.6 km in a straight line
- Parking 40 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport (BEY)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 20 km in a straight lineCar hire at BEY airport (Beirut)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 Nahr al-Kalb runs highest from January to February.
The Nahr al-Kalb carries about 3.2 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from January to February. It is lowest from April to November.
- 9.8 m³/sJan
- 8.7 m³/sFeb
- 4.9 m³/sMar
- 2.1 m³/sApr
- 0.8 m³/sMay
- 0.4 m³/sJun
- 0.3 m³/sJul
- 0.3 m³/sAug
- 0.3 m³/sSep
- 0.7 m³/sOct
- 2.5 m³/sNov
- 6.4 m³/sDec
From about 0.30 m³/s in the lowest month to 9.8 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 262 km².
Follow the Nahr al-Kalb 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.
- 2other cave entrances within 3 kmمغارة جعيتا, Upper Grotto
- 14car parks within 2 km
- 95hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmبرينتانيا, Vista del Mar, Princessa and 92 more
- 36restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints within 3 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- campsites within 8 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
- Jounieh4.6 km in a straight line
- Aajaltoûn4.6 km in a straight line
- Jdaidet el Matn9.1 km in a straight line
- Beirut14 km in a straight line
- Bhamdoûn el Mhatta15 km in a straight line
- Baabda15 km in a straight line
- Ra’s Bayrūt15 km in a straight line
- Aley16 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Jeita Grotto.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas20 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 | 16 | 17 | 20 | 23 | 27 | 30 | 32 | 32 | 31 | 28 | 23 | 18 |
| Afternoon | 16 | 17 | 20 | 23 | 27 | 30 | 32 | 32 | 31 | 28 | 23 | 18 |
| Night | 11 | 12 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 24 | 21 | 17 | 13 |
| Rain (mm) | 115 | 82 | 43 | 23 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 23 | 56 | 96 |
| Rainy days | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Sun hours/day | 4.5 | 5.7 | 7.7 | 9.2 | 11.2 | 12.7 | 12.3 | 11.3 | 10.1 | 7.9 | 6.2 | 4.6 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 16 | 16 | 11 | 115 | 4.5 |
| Feb | 17 | 17 | 12 | 82 | 5.7 |
| Mar | 20 | 20 | 13 | 43 | 7.7 |
| Apr | 23 | 23 | 16 | 23 | 9.2 |
| May | 27 | 27 | 19 | 9 | 11.2 |
| Jun | 30 | 30 | 23 | 2 | 12.7 |
| Jul | 32 | 32 | 25 | 0 | 12.3 |
| Aug | 32 | 32 | 25 | 1 | 11.3 |
| Sep | 31 | 31 | 24 | 5 | 10.1 |
| Oct | 28 | 28 | 21 | 23 | 7.9 |
| Nov | 23 | 23 | 17 | 56 | 6.2 |
| Dec | 18 | 18 | 13 | 96 | 4.6 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (71 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Caves nearby.
Jeita Grotto
Lebanon
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 71 mEntrance altitude
- 22 °CInside, all year
Baatara gorge waterfall
Lebanon · 33 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,487 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Afqa Grotto
Lebanon · 27 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,227 mEntrance altitude
- 14 °CInside, all year
Fortress of Niha
Lebanon · 40 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,184 mEntrance altitude
- 14 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q1552568) · 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
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