Germany Show cave
Sophienhöhle
0.9 km of galleries.
Rainer Lippert · Public domain
The descent
The entrance, at 400 m.
The real relief above Sophienhöhle, 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.
0.9km
Galleries
surveyed length (Wikidata)
400m
Entrance altitude
published (Wikidata)
9°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
151m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
9 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 9 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 25 °C at the entrance, 16 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- 1°-4°Jan
- 3°-4°Feb
- 8°-1°Mar
- 14°3°Apr
- 18°8°May
- 22°12°Jun
- 25°14°Jul
- 25°13°Aug
- 20°9°Sep
- 13°4°Oct
- 7°1°Nov
- 2°-3°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 Germany
Sophienhöhle is a show cave in Germany. It has 0.9 km of surveyed galleries. The entrance is at 400 m. It has stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsHours in OpenStreetMap: Tu-Su 10:30-17:00
- Waischenfeldnearest town · 2.9 km in a straight line
- Parking 40 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.1 km from the entrance
- Nuremberg Airport (NUE)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 42 km in a straight lineCar hire at NUE airport (Nuremberg)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.
- 15other cave entrances within 3 kmSophienhöhle, Ludwigshöhle, Sandlochhöhle and 12 more
- 2springs within 2 kmGartentalbrunnen
- 20viewpoints within 3 kmBurgblick, Hohe Warte, Freistein and 17 more
- 32marked hiking routes within 3 kmWaischenfeld Rundwanderweg Blauer Ring, Fränkischer Marienweg – Ave-Maria-Route, Kaspar-Bezold-Weg and 29 more
- 18climbing crags within 3 kmSteinpilz, FJ Oberailsfed, FJ Hulkblöcke and 15 more
- 37car parks within 2 km
- 27information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 24bus stops within 2 km
- 19campsites within 8 kmZeltplatz der Kolpingsfamilie Münchberg, Fuchshof, Wohnmobilstellplatz Pezoldstraße - Gößweinstein and 16 more
- 95hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmBergwachthütte, Gasthaus Pension Persau, Püttlachtal and 92 more
- 15restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 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
- Waischenfeld2.9 km in a straight line
- Pottenstein6.6 km in a straight line
- Gößweinstein7.0 km in a straight line
- Glashütten8.5 km in a straight line
- Mistelgau12 km in a straight line
- Aufseß12 km in a straight line
- Hollfeld14 km in a straight line
- Obertrubach14 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Sophienhöhle.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas18 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 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 14 | 18 | 22 | 25 | 25 | 20 | 13 | 7 | 2 |
| Afternoon | 1 | 3 | 8 | 14 | 18 | 22 | 25 | 25 | 20 | 13 | 7 | 2 |
| Night | -4 | -4 | -1 | 3 | 8 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 1 | -3 |
| Rain (mm) | 65 | 50 | 53 | 40 | 74 | 67 | 80 | 70 | 58 | 57 | 64 | 69 |
| Rainy days | 14 | 11 | 12 | 10 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 15 |
| Sun hours/day | 1.2 | 2.6 | 3.9 | 6.0 | 6.3 | 6.8 | 6.9 | 6.0 | 4.9 | 3.0 | 1.2 | 0.7 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 16 | 15 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 16 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 1 | 1 | -4 | 65 | 1.2 |
| Feb | 3 | 3 | -4 | 50 | 2.6 |
| Mar | 8 | 8 | -1 | 53 | 3.9 |
| Apr | 14 | 14 | 3 | 40 | 6.0 |
| May | 18 | 18 | 8 | 74 | 6.3 |
| Jun | 22 | 22 | 12 | 67 | 6.8 |
| Jul | 25 | 25 | 14 | 80 | 6.9 |
| Aug | 25 | 25 | 13 | 70 | 6.0 |
| Sep | 20 | 20 | 9 | 58 | 4.9 |
| Oct | 13 | 13 | 4 | 57 | 3.0 |
| Nov | 7 | 7 | 1 | 64 | 1.2 |
| Dec | 2 | 2 | -3 | 69 | 0.7 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (400 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 | 52% | 247% | 101% | 34% | 69% | 186% | 41% | 154% | 83% | 119% | 27% | 90% |
| 2021 | 136% | 111% | 75% | 75% | 133% | 136% | 184% | 153% | 46% | 64% | 82% | 103% |
| 2022 | 106% | 129% | 34% | 198% | 45% | 55% | 35% | 83% | 188% | 82% | 77% | 81% |
| 2023 | 82% | 95% | 189% | 134% | 47% | 64% | 83% | 181% | 35% | 121% | 155% | 158% |
| 2024 | 120% | 170% | 55% | 156% | 167% | 145% | 91% | 104% | 181% | 113% | 81% | 79% |
| 2025 | 100% | 47% | 35% | 75% | 56% | 80% | 112% | 58% | 183% | 119% | 54% | 29% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Sophienhöhle
Germany
- —Depth
- 0.9 kmGalleries
- 400 mEntrance altitude
- 9 °CInside, all year
Devil's Cave
Germany · 9 km
- —Depth
- 1.5 kmGalleries
- 380 mEntrance altitude
- 9 °CInside, all year
Bing Cave
Germany · 12 km
- —Depth
- 0.3 kmGalleries
- 380 mEntrance altitude
- 9 °CInside, all year
Felsengarten Sanspareil
Germany · 18 km
- —Depth
- 0.7 kmGalleries
- 505 mEntrance altitude
- 8 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q2302963) · 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
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