Vietnam / Laos CEphoto, Uwe Aranas · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 376 m.
The real relief above Pak Ou Caves, 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.
376m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
26°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
182m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
26 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 26 °C here, in January and in August. In April the afternoon reaches 35 °C at the entrance, 9 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are all year round. The wettest months are from May to September: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 28°14°Jan
- 31°17°Feb
- 34°20°Mar
- 35°22°Apr
- 35°24°May
- 33°24°Jun
- 32°24°Jul
- 31°23°Aug
- 32°23°Sep
- 32°21°Oct
- 30°18°Nov
- 27°14°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 Laos
Pak Ou Caves is a show cave in Vietnam. The entrance is at 376 m. It has an underground river and stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsticket required
- Luang Prabangnearest town · 18 km in a straight line
- Parking 580 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 1.3 km from the entrance
- Luang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 17 km in a straight lineCar hire at NNT airport (Nan Airport)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 the river runs highest from August to October.
The the river carries about 3,679 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from August to October. It is lowest from December to May.
- 1,066 m³/sJan
- 767 m³/sFeb
- 828 m³/sMar
- 1,261 m³/sApr
- 2,460 m³/sMay
- 3,814 m³/sJun
- 6,770 m³/sJul
- 9,661 m³/sAug
- 9,615 m³/sSep
- 7,996 m³/sOct
- 5,004 m³/sNov
- 2,181 m³/sDec
From about 767 m³/s in the lowest month to 9,661 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 257,782 km².
Follow the Mekong River 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 kmຖ້ຳຕິ່ງ, Tham Phum (Upper Cave)
- 1viewpoints within 3 km
- 2car parks within 2 km
- 4hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmNam Ou Riverside Hotel & Resort and 3 more
- 5restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 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
- Luang Prabang18 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Pak Ou Caves.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Riveryas9 rivers at the entrance
Peakyas8 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 | 28 | 31 | 34 | 35 | 35 | 33 | 32 | 31 | 32 | 32 | 30 | 27 |
| Afternoon | 28 | 31 | 34 | 35 | 35 | 33 | 32 | 31 | 32 | 32 | 30 | 27 |
| Night | 14 | 17 | 20 | 22 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 23 | 23 | 21 | 18 | 14 |
| Rain (mm) | 14 | 6 | 29 | 60 | 114 | 122 | 211 | 222 | 120 | 51 | 22 | 11 |
| Rainy days | 2 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 19 | 20 | 24 | 24 | 18 | 10 | 5 | 2 |
| Sun hours/day | 6.1 | 7.1 | 6.2 | 6.5 | 6.2 | 4.5 | 3.8 | 4.2 | 5.5 | 5.9 | 6.5 | 5.9 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 28 | 28 | 14 | 14 | 6.1 |
| Feb | 31 | 31 | 17 | 6 | 7.1 |
| Mar | 34 | 34 | 20 | 29 | 6.2 |
| Apr | 35 | 35 | 22 | 60 | 6.5 |
| May | 35 | 35 | 24 | 114 | 6.2 |
| Jun | 33 | 33 | 24 | 122 | 4.5 |
| Jul | 32 | 32 | 24 | 211 | 3.8 |
| Aug | 31 | 31 | 23 | 222 | 4.2 |
| Sep | 32 | 32 | 23 | 120 | 5.5 |
| Oct | 32 | 32 | 21 | 51 | 5.9 |
| Nov | 30 | 30 | 18 | 22 | 6.5 |
| Dec | 27 | 27 | 14 | 11 | 5.9 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (376 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 | 2% | 5% | 109% | 326% | 149% | 155% | 83% | 189% | 98% | 126% | 24% | 0% |
| 2021 | 42% | 598% | 103% | 309% | 110% | 177% | 106% | 115% | 160% | 149% | 222% | 29% |
| 2022 | 352% | 1,769% | 480% | 269% | 185% | 126% | 118% | 114% | 85% | 46% | 219% | 72% |
| 2023 | 4% | 14% | 73% | 26% | 81% | 84% | 57% | 91% | 71% | 110% | 47% | 37% |
| 2024 | 29% | 334% | 60% | 39% | 95% | 158% | 47% | 76% | 163% | 53% | 6% | 15% |
| 2025 | 0% | 176% | 18% | 96% | 67% | 136% | 159% | 63% | 90% | 44% | 75% | 141% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Pak Ou Caves
Vietnam
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 376 mEntrance altitude
- 26 °CInside, all year
Tam Pa Ling Cave
Laos · 126 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,079 mEntrance altitude
- 21 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q2671098) · 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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