Ukraine / Poland Cave
Optymistychna Cave
20 m deep, 265 km of galleries.
Педагог Світлана · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
20 metres down, to scale.
The real relief above Optymistychna Cave, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
a two-storey house (9 m) would fit upside down 2.2 times.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey.
20m
Depth
published (Wikidata)
265km
Galleries
surveyed length (Wikidata)
276m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
9°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
56m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
9 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 9 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 27 °C at the entrance, 18 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- -1°-8°Jan
- 1°-7°Feb
- 8°-2°Mar
- 15°3°Apr
- 21°9°May
- 24°14°Jun
- 26°15°Jul
- 27°15°Aug
- 21°10°Sep
- 14°4°Oct
- 7°-1°Nov
- 1°-6°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.
Gypsum cave in Ukraine
Optymistychna Cave is a cave in Ukraine. It goes down 20 m below the entrance and has 265 km of surveyed galleries. The entrance is at 276 m. It has several entrances and long galleries.
Getting there.
- No public accessProtected for science or for its art. Look for a replica or a visitor centre nearby.
- Bilche-Zolotenearest town · 8.4 km in a straight line
- Suceava Ștefan cel Mare International Airport (SCV)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 120 km in a straight lineCar hire at IFO airport (Ivano-Frankivsk)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.
- 1other cave entrances within 3 kmГеологічна пам'ятка природи "Печера "Оптимістична"
- 2hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmСпелеобаза "Печера Оптимістична", Гостинний Двір
- 1restaurants 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
- car parks within 2 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
- Bilche-Zolote8.4 km in a straight line
- Borshchiv8.7 km in a straight line
- Repuzhyntsi16 km in a straight line
- Vasyliv17 km in a straight line
- Doroshivtsi17 km in a straight line
- Vikno18 km in a straight line
- Chunkiv20 km in a straight line
- Melnytsya-Podilska20 km in a straight line
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | -1 | 1 | 8 | 15 | 21 | 24 | 26 | 27 | 21 | 14 | 7 | 1 |
| Afternoon | -1 | 1 | 8 | 15 | 21 | 24 | 26 | 27 | 21 | 14 | 7 | 1 |
| Night | -8 | -7 | -2 | 3 | 9 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 10 | 4 | -1 | -6 |
| Rain (mm) | 33 | 36 | 44 | 48 | 75 | 96 | 90 | 63 | 50 | 50 | 39 | 36 |
| Rainy days | 8 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 9 |
| Sun hours/day | 1.9 | 3.2 | 4.9 | 6.8 | 8.1 | 8.6 | 8.7 | 8.4 | 6.2 | 4.1 | 1.4 | 1.2 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 18 | 17 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 17 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | -1 | -1 | -8 | 33 | 1.9 |
| Feb | 1 | 1 | -7 | 36 | 3.2 |
| Mar | 8 | 8 | -2 | 44 | 4.9 |
| Apr | 15 | 15 | 3 | 48 | 6.8 |
| May | 21 | 21 | 9 | 75 | 8.1 |
| Jun | 24 | 24 | 14 | 96 | 8.6 |
| Jul | 26 | 26 | 15 | 90 | 8.7 |
| Aug | 27 | 27 | 15 | 63 | 8.4 |
| Sep | 21 | 21 | 10 | 50 | 6.2 |
| Oct | 14 | 14 | 4 | 50 | 4.1 |
| Nov | 7 | 7 | -1 | 39 | 1.4 |
| Dec | 1 | 1 | -6 | 36 | 1.2 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (276 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 | 39% | 151% | 81% | 47% | 136% | 127% | 98% | 39% | 156% | 151% | 36% | 144% |
| 2021 | 91% | 150% | 134% | 84% | 127% | 92% | 105% | 130% | 61% | 7% | 42% | 260% |
| 2022 | 82% | 53% | 20% | 99% | 36% | 42% | 76% | 109% | 198% | 52% | 211% | 104% |
| 2023 | 76% | 140% | 67% | 230% | 34% | 76% | 82% | 105% | 68% | 85% | 131% | 104% |
| 2024 | 145% | 118% | 86% | 150% | 45% | 74% | 86% | 61% | 249% | 57% | 99% | 140% |
| 2025 | 53% | 19% | 69% | 94% | 220% | 19% | 165% | 48% | 203% | 139% | 101% | 75% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Optymistychna Cave
Ukraine
- 20 mDepth
- 265 kmGalleries
- 276 mEntrance altitude
- 9 °CInside, all year
Priest's Grotto
Ukraine · 4 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 212 mEntrance altitude
- 9 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q1641035) · 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 |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
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