Laos Alexander Blecher, blecher.info , all 452 pictures , overview · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 246 m.
The real relief above Tham Kong Lo, 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.
246m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
24°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
563m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
24 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 24 °C here, in January and in August. In April the afternoon reaches 34 °C at the entrance, 9 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from February to October.
- 24°14°Jan
- 28°16°Feb
- 31°19°Mar
- 34°22°Apr
- 32°24°May
- 30°24°Jun
- 29°24°Jul
- 29°24°Aug
- 29°23°Sep
- 28°21°Oct
- 26°18°Nov
- 23°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.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 1.7 km from the entrance
- Nakhon Phanom Airport (KOP)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 65 km in a straight lineCar hire in Nakhon PhanomDiscover 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.
- 3other cave entrances within 3 kmPorcupine Cave, ຖ້ຳກອງລໍ
- 1springs within 2 km
- 1viewpoints within 3 km
- 1information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 1bus stops within 2 km
- 3campsites within 8 km
- 33hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmAuberge Sala Hin Boun, Saylomyen Guesthouse, Konglor Eco-Lodge and 30 more
- 7restaurants and cafés within 3 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
- car parks within 2 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).
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 24 | 28 | 31 | 34 | 32 | 30 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 28 | 26 | 23 |
| Afternoon | 24 | 28 | 31 | 34 | 32 | 30 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 28 | 26 | 23 |
| Night | 14 | 16 | 19 | 22 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 23 | 21 | 18 | 14 |
| Rain (mm) | 16 | 19 | 46 | 65 | 168 | 183 | 326 | 334 | 286 | 184 | 39 | 24 |
| Rainy days | 5 | 5 | 9 | 11 | 20 | 22 | 24 | 27 | 22 | 16 | 7 | 6 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.3 | 2.8 | 2.7 | 4.3 | 5.9 | 6.0 | 5.4 | 4.6 | 4.1 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 2.0 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 24 | 24 | 14 | 16 | 2.3 |
| Feb | 28 | 28 | 16 | 19 | 2.8 |
| Mar | 31 | 31 | 19 | 46 | 2.7 |
| Apr | 34 | 34 | 22 | 65 | 4.3 |
| May | 32 | 32 | 24 | 168 | 5.9 |
| Jun | 30 | 30 | 24 | 183 | 6.0 |
| Jul | 29 | 29 | 24 | 326 | 5.4 |
| Aug | 29 | 29 | 24 | 334 | 4.6 |
| Sep | 29 | 29 | 23 | 286 | 4.1 |
| Oct | 28 | 28 | 21 | 184 | 3.0 |
| Nov | 26 | 26 | 18 | 39 | 3.0 |
| Dec | 23 | 23 | 14 | 24 | 2.0 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (246 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 | 274% | 173% | 226% | 135% | 106% | 33% | 41% | 152% | 73% | 312% | 117% | 116% |
| 2021 | 53% | 217% | 116% | 224% | 89% | 226% | 123% | 49% | 157% | 201% | 91% | 81% |
| 2022 | 112% | 312% | 175% | 213% | 175% | 77% | 115% | 105% | 152% | 76% | 412% | 120% |
| 2023 | 182% | 76% | 49% | 75% | 72% | 115% | 110% | 78% | 151% | 193% | 205% | 259% |
| 2024 | 237% | 57% | 153% | 12% | 119% | 120% | 103% | 64% | 201% | 66% | 167% | 118% |
| 2025 | 48% | 185% | 79% | 164% | 114% | 178% | 138% | 181% | 113% | 96% | 305% | 100% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Tham Kong Lo
Laos
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 246 mEntrance altitude
- 24 °CInside, all year
Thien Duong Cave
Vietnam · 162 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 253 mEntrance altitude
- 24 °CInside, all year
Son Doong Cave
Vietnam · 171 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 390 mEntrance altitude
- 23 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q7709772) · 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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