Italy Gianfranco Vitolo · CC BY 2.0
The descent
The entrance, at 265 m.
The real relief above Pertosa 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.
265m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
16°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
521m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
16 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 16 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 34 °C at the entrance, 18 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from June to September. The wettest months are in January and in November: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 11°4°Jan
- 11°4°Feb
- 15°6°Mar
- 19°8°Apr
- 23°12°May
- 30°17°Jun
- 34°20°Jul
- 33°20°Aug
- 27°16°Sep
- 22°12°Oct
- 16°8°Nov
- 12°5°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.
Caves in Pertosa, Campania, Italy
Pertosa Caves is a show cave in Italy. The entrance is at 265 m. It has an underground river and stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsticket required
- Pertosanearest town · 0.9 km in a straight line
- Parking 80 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Salerno Costa d'Amalfi Airport (QSR)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 47 km in a straight lineCar hire at NAP airport (Napoli)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 Fiume Tanagro runs highest from November to March.
The Fiume Tanagro carries about 11 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from November to March. It is lowest from June to August.
- 22 m³/sJan
- 19 m³/sFeb
- 18 m³/sMar
- 13 m³/sApr
- 8.4 m³/sMay
- 4.4 m³/sJun
- 2.4 m³/sJul
- 1.8 m³/sAug
- 6.2 m³/sSep
- 12 m³/sOct
- 21 m³/sNov
- 22 m³/sDec
From about 1.8 m³/s in the lowest month to 22 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 631 km².
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 kmGrotte di Pertosa - Auletta, Grotta di Polla
- 2marked hiking routes within 3 kmCammino del Negro - Tappa 7, Cammino del Negro - Tappa 6
- 11car parks within 2 km
- 1information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 1bus stops within 2 km
- 15hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmAgriturismo Melandro, Agriturismo Il Pozzo di Peppino, Zi Marianna and 12 more
- 2restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 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
- Pertosa0.9 km in a straight line
- Auletta3.8 km in a straight line
- Polla4.3 km in a straight line
- Caggiano4.5 km in a straight line
- Salvitelle6.0 km in a straight line
- Petina7.0 km in a straight line
- Sant'Arsenio7.7 km in a straight line
- Vietri di Potenza8.3 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 | 11 | 11 | 15 | 19 | 23 | 30 | 34 | 33 | 27 | 22 | 16 | 12 |
| Afternoon | 11 | 11 | 15 | 19 | 23 | 30 | 34 | 33 | 27 | 22 | 16 | 12 |
| Night | 4 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 12 | 17 | 20 | 20 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 5 |
| Rain (mm) | 78 | 62 | 64 | 50 | 44 | 33 | 30 | 28 | 58 | 71 | 93 | 74 |
| Rainy days | 11 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 9 | 12 | 12 |
| Sun hours/day | 3.4 | 4.2 | 5.4 | 7.0 | 8.7 | 10.7 | 11.7 | 10.6 | 7.5 | 6.0 | 4.1 | 3.5 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 11 | 11 | 4 | 78 | 3.4 |
| Feb | 11 | 11 | 4 | 62 | 4.2 |
| Mar | 15 | 15 | 6 | 64 | 5.4 |
| Apr | 19 | 19 | 8 | 50 | 7.0 |
| May | 23 | 23 | 12 | 44 | 8.7 |
| Jun | 30 | 30 | 17 | 33 | 10.7 |
| Jul | 34 | 34 | 20 | 30 | 11.7 |
| Aug | 33 | 33 | 20 | 28 | 10.6 |
| Sep | 27 | 27 | 16 | 58 | 7.5 |
| Oct | 22 | 22 | 12 | 71 | 6.0 |
| Nov | 16 | 16 | 8 | 93 | 4.1 |
| Dec | 12 | 12 | 5 | 74 | 3.5 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (265 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 | 7% | 40% | 78% | 93% | 78% | 120% | 266% | 273% | 94% | 214% | 75% | 148% |
| 2021 | 138% | 382% | 58% | 65% | 29% | 50% | 30% | 81% | 39% | 64% | 98% | 120% |
| 2022 | 20% | 57% | 62% | 54% | 52% | 50% | 55% | 152% | 128% | 55% | 125% | 65% |
| 2023 | 117% | 28% | 61% | 117% | 225% | 170% | 14% | 70% | 32% | 65% | 73% | 30% |
| 2024 | 49% | 111% | 72% | 36% | 59% | 40% | 39% | 58% | 71% | 44% | 18% | 54% |
| 2025 | 91% | 62% | 84% | 40% | 73% | 42% | 53% | 96% | 146% | 1,442% | 150% | 73% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Pertosa Caves
Italy
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 265 mEntrance altitude
- 16 °CInside, all year
Castelcivita Caves
Italy · 21 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 106 mEntrance altitude
- 17 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q1547618) · 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 |
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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