Ethiopia Show cave
Sof Omar Caves
23 °C inside, all year.
Rod Waddington from Kergunyah, Australia · CC BY-SA 2.0
The descent
The entrance, at 1,274 m.
The real relief above Sof Omar 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.
1,274m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
23°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
53m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
23 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 23 °C here, in January and in August. In February the afternoon reaches 31 °C at the entrance, 8 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are all year round. The wettest months are from April to May and in October: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 30°15°Jan
- 31°17°Feb
- 30°18°Mar
- 28°18°Apr
- 28°18°May
- 28°17°Jun
- 28°17°Jul
- 28°17°Aug
- 29°17°Sep
- 27°17°Oct
- 27°16°Nov
- 28°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 Ethiopia
Sof Omar Caves is a show cave in Ethiopia. The entrance is at 1,274 m. It has an underground river, stalactites and stalagmites and several entrances and long galleries. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsUsually with a guided tour; check times and tickets on the official site.
- Hawassa International Airport (AWA)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 272 km in a straight line
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 Weyib runs highest from April to May.
The Weyib carries about 16 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from April to May. It is lowest from January to March and in July.
- 4.1 m³/sJan
- 2.4 m³/sFeb
- 7.5 m³/sMar
- 36 m³/sApr
- 34 m³/sMay
- 18 m³/sJun
- 9.4 m³/sJul
- 14 m³/sAug
- 16 m³/sSep
- 21 m³/sOct
- 19 m³/sNov
- 11 m³/sDec
From about 2.4 m³/s in the lowest month to 36 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 4,549 km².
The Weyib River from source to mouth on Riveryas — coming soon
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.
- 3other cave entrances within 3 kmSof Omar Caves, Cave Entrance, Résurgence Holuca (Sof Omar Caves)
- 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
- hotels and guesthouses within 8 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 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).
In our other atlases
What else is around Sof Omar 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.
Riveryas1 rivers at the entranceFigures 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 | 30 | 31 | 30 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 29 | 27 | 27 | 28 |
| Afternoon | 30 | 31 | 30 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 29 | 27 | 27 | 28 |
| Night | 15 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 16 | 14 |
| Rain (mm) | 12 | 23 | 69 | 204 | 126 | 48 | 53 | 95 | 85 | 113 | 85 | 40 |
| Rainy days | 4 | 4 | 11 | 22 | 22 | 13 | 15 | 19 | 20 | 22 | 12 | 6 |
| Sun hours/day | 10.2 | 10.4 | 9.4 | 7.9 | 9.0 | 9.2 | 7.8 | 7.8 | 7.8 | 7.4 | 8.5 | 9.8 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 30 | 30 | 15 | 12 | 10.2 |
| Feb | 31 | 31 | 17 | 23 | 10.4 |
| Mar | 30 | 30 | 18 | 69 | 9.4 |
| Apr | 28 | 28 | 18 | 204 | 7.9 |
| May | 28 | 28 | 18 | 126 | 9.0 |
| Jun | 28 | 28 | 17 | 48 | 9.2 |
| Jul | 28 | 28 | 17 | 53 | 7.8 |
| Aug | 28 | 28 | 17 | 95 | 7.8 |
| Sep | 29 | 29 | 17 | 85 | 7.8 |
| Oct | 27 | 27 | 17 | 113 | 7.4 |
| Nov | 27 | 27 | 16 | 85 | 8.5 |
| Dec | 28 | 28 | 14 | 40 | 9.8 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (1,274 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 | 115% | 108% | 79% | 204% | 180% | 163% | 170% | 107% | 170% | 137% | 82% | 635% |
| 2021 | 1,763% | 93% | 45% | 104% | 129% | 54% | 140% | 151% | 229% | 135% | 161% | 248% |
| 2022 | 270% | 227% | 144% | 207% | 28% | 116% | 138% | 79% | 71% | 106% | 49% | 213% |
| 2023 | 47% | 141% | 308% | 175% | 167% | 299% | 126% | 100% | 47% | 362% | 296% | 18% |
| 2024 | 103% | 493% | 74% | 95% | 193% | 93% | 191% | 171% | 100% | 241% | 66% | 8% |
| 2025 | 3% | 12% | 332% | 62% | 42% | 44% | 53% | 142% | 209% | 215% | 50% | 99% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q3444339) · 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
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