Turkey Show cave World Heritage
Seven Sleepers cemetery (Ephesus)
18 °C inside, all year.
Klaus-Peter Simon · CC BY 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 36 m.
The real relief above Seven Sleepers cemetery (Ephesus), 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.
36m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
18°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
112m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
18 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 18 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 39 °C at the entrance, 20 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from May to September.
- 12°3°Jan
- 14°4°Feb
- 17°6°Mar
- 21°10°Apr
- 28°15°May
- 34°19°Jun
- 39°22°Jul
- 39°23°Aug
- 33°18°Sep
- 26°13°Oct
- 20°8°Nov
- 14°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.
Cemetery and church with a cave associated with the legend of the Seven Sleepers, Ephesus
Seven Sleepers cemetery (Ephesus) is a show cave in Turkey. The entrance is at 36 m. It has stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsUsually with a guided tour; check times and tickets on the official site.
- Selçuknearest town · 1.5 km in a straight line
- Parking 170 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 1.2 km from the entrance
- Adnan Menderes International Airport (ADB)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 42 km in a straight lineCar hire at ADB airport (Gaziemir)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.
- 4viewpoints within 3 km
- 16car parks within 2 km
- 21information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 4bus stops within 2 km
- 7campsites within 8 kmGarden Camp, Selçuk Belediyesi Pamucak Sosyal Tesisleri, Antique Lodge and 4 more
- 81hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmDereli Motel & Camping, Richmond Ephesus, Pine Bay Holiday Resort and 78 more
- 53restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- other cave entrances 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
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
- Selçuk1.5 km in a straight line
- Belevi12 km in a straight line
- Kuşadası13 km in a straight line
- Neşetiye18 km in a straight line
- Soğucak19 km in a straight line
- Özdere21 km in a straight line
- Hıdırbeyli21 km in a straight line
- Söke22 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Seven Sleepers cemetery (Ephesus).
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Lakeyas2 lakes within 10 km
Peakyas4 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 | 12 | 14 | 17 | 21 | 28 | 34 | 39 | 39 | 33 | 26 | 20 | 14 |
| Afternoon | 12 | 14 | 17 | 21 | 28 | 34 | 39 | 39 | 33 | 26 | 20 | 14 |
| Night | 3 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 15 | 19 | 22 | 23 | 18 | 13 | 8 | 5 |
| Rain (mm) | 135 | 99 | 63 | 48 | 34 | 14 | 4 | 4 | 18 | 51 | 90 | 118 |
| Rainy days | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 12 |
| Sun hours/day | 4.2 | 4.7 | 6.5 | 8.2 | 10.1 | 11.9 | 13.1 | 11.9 | 9.8 | 7.6 | 5.8 | 4.1 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 12 | 12 | 3 | 135 | 4.2 |
| Feb | 14 | 14 | 4 | 99 | 4.7 |
| Mar | 17 | 17 | 6 | 63 | 6.5 |
| Apr | 21 | 21 | 10 | 48 | 8.2 |
| May | 28 | 28 | 15 | 34 | 10.1 |
| Jun | 34 | 34 | 19 | 14 | 11.9 |
| Jul | 39 | 39 | 22 | 4 | 13.1 |
| Aug | 39 | 39 | 23 | 4 | 11.9 |
| Sep | 33 | 33 | 18 | 18 | 9.8 |
| Oct | 26 | 26 | 13 | 51 | 7.6 |
| Nov | 20 | 20 | 8 | 90 | 5.8 |
| Dec | 14 | 14 | 5 | 118 | 4.1 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (36 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
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 | 44% | 85% | 109% | 88% | 119% | 157% | — | — | 3% | 75% | 5% | 143% |
| 2021 | 124% | 98% | 147% | 48% | 15% | 98% | — | — | 8% | 81% | 47% | 152% |
| 2022 | 68% | 93% | 123% | 29% | 23% | 166% | — | — | 2% | 2% | 76% | 64% |
| 2023 | 86% | 13% | 112% | 135% | 120% | 315% | — | — | 107% | 7% | 152% | 79% |
| 2024 | 84% | 39% | 80% | 54% | 42% | 2% | — | — | 125% | 0% | 94% | 210% |
| 2025 | 126% | 86% | 17% | 151% | 62% | 6% | — | — | 40% | 159% | 63% | 67% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Seven Sleepers cemetery (Ephesus)
Turkey
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 36 mEntrance altitude
- 18 °CInside, all year
Cave of the Apocalypse
Greece · 100 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 87 mEntrance altitude
- 18 °CInside, all year
İnkaya Cave
Turkey · 63 km
- 30 mDepth
- 0.2 kmGalleries
- 248 mEntrance altitude
- 16 °CInside, all year
Pythagoras Cave
Greece · 66 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 368 mEntrance altitude
- 17 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q1409276) · 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 |
| 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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