Spain Cave World Heritage
Sima de los Huesos
10 °C inside, all year.
UtaUtaNapishtim · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 1,019 m.
The real relief above Sima de los Huesos, 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.
1,019m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
10°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
63m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
10 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 10 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 25 °C at the entrance, 16 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The wettest months are in November: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 6°-2°Jan
- 7°-2°Feb
- 10°0°Mar
- 14°2°Apr
- 17°5°May
- 22°9°Jun
- 25°11°Jul
- 25°11°Aug
- 21°9°Sep
- 16°6°Oct
- 9°2°Nov
- 6°-1°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 and paleolithic site in Spain
Sima de los Huesos is a cave in Spain. The entrance is at 1,019 m. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Atapuercanearest town · 3.1 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 1.6 km from the entrance
- Vitoria Airport (VIT)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 87 km in a straight lineCar hire at BIO airport (Bilbao)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.
- 7other cave entrances within 3 kmCueva de El Mirador, Cueva del Silo, Cueva Mayor and 4 more
- 1springs within 2 kmLa Paúl
- 3viewpoints within 3 kmMirador de Galería, Mirador de Gran Dolina
- 4marked hiking routes within 3 kmCamiño Francés (Rutas alternativas), Camino Francés - 03 Logroño a Burgos, Etapa 4 Villafranca Montes de Oca - Ibeas de Juarros and 1 more
- 2car parks within 2 km
- 7information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 1bus stops within 2 km
- 43hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmLos Braseros, Camino de Santiago, Albergue Parroquial de San Juan de Ortega and 40 more
- 6restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 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
- Atapuerca3.1 km in a straight line
- Ibeas de Juarros3.6 km in a straight line
- Arlanzón4.6 km in a straight line
- Barrios de Colina6.1 km in a straight line
- Quintanapalla7.1 km in a straight line
- Rubena7.4 km in a straight line
- Fresno de Rodilla7.9 km in a straight line
- Castrillo del Val8.1 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 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 14 | 17 | 22 | 25 | 25 | 21 | 16 | 9 | 6 |
| Afternoon | 6 | 7 | 10 | 14 | 17 | 22 | 25 | 25 | 21 | 16 | 9 | 6 |
| Night | -2 | -2 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 2 | -1 |
| Rain (mm) | 64 | 51 | 59 | 63 | 55 | 45 | 25 | 25 | 35 | 68 | 78 | 63 |
| Rainy days | 12 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 14 | 12 |
| Sun hours/day | 3.0 | 4.2 | 5.7 | 6.8 | 8.5 | 9.9 | 11.2 | 10.0 | 8.1 | 5.6 | 3.4 | 3.2 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 8 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 6 | 6 | -2 | 64 | 3.0 |
| Feb | 7 | 7 | -2 | 51 | 4.2 |
| Mar | 10 | 10 | 0 | 59 | 5.7 |
| Apr | 14 | 14 | 2 | 63 | 6.8 |
| May | 17 | 17 | 5 | 55 | 8.5 |
| Jun | 22 | 22 | 9 | 45 | 9.9 |
| Jul | 25 | 25 | 11 | 25 | 11.2 |
| Aug | 25 | 25 | 11 | 25 | 10.0 |
| Sep | 21 | 21 | 9 | 35 | 8.1 |
| Oct | 16 | 16 | 6 | 68 | 5.6 |
| Nov | 9 | 9 | 2 | 78 | 3.4 |
| Dec | 6 | 6 | -1 | 63 | 3.2 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (1,019 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 | 61% | 18% | 140% | 175% | 124% | 156% | 85% | 135% | 185% | 170% | 37% | 210% |
| 2021 | 112% | 150% | 22% | 82% | 68% | 153% | 36% | 40% | 163% | 79% | 123% | 137% |
| 2022 | 40% | 23% | 108% | 111% | 40% | 46% | 20% | 93% | 89% | 69% | 106% | 135% |
| 2023 | 153% | 53% | 26% | 22% | 53% | 150% | 26% | 40% | 137% | 100% | 91% | 50% |
| 2024 | 65% | 113% | 118% | 34% | 89% | 123% | 63% | 169% | 185% | 168% | 38% | 55% |
| 2025 | 86% | 77% | 152% | 105% | 103% | 77% | 48% | 77% | 79% | 33% | 117% | 85% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Sima de los Huesos
Spain
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,019 mEntrance altitude
- 10 °CInside, all year
Fuentemolinos cave
Spain · 21 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 942 mEntrance altitude
- 10 °CInside, all year
Cave of Altamira
Spain · 125 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 95 mEntrance altitude
- 15 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q28952348) · 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.
The family
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