France Cave with prehistoric art
Trois Frères Cave
13 °C inside, all year.
Chevalier Georges · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 486 m.
The real relief above Trois Frères Cave, 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.
486m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
13°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
119m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
13 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 13 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 29 °C at the entrance, 16 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from July to August.
- 9°1°Jan
- 10°0°Feb
- 13°3°Mar
- 17°6°Apr
- 20°9°May
- 26°13°Jun
- 29°15°Jul
- 29°15°Aug
- 24°12°Sep
- 20°8°Oct
- 13°4°Nov
- 10°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 in southwestern France famous for its cave paintings
Trois Frères Cave is a cave with prehistoric art in France. The entrance is at 486 m. It is closed to the public to protect it.
Getting there.
- No public accessProtected for science or for its art. Look for a replica or a visitor centre nearby.
- Montjoie-en-Couseransnearest town · 5.4 km in a straight line
- Toulouse-Blagnac Airport (TLS)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 68 km in a straight lineCar hire at TLS airport (Toulouse/Blagnac)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.
- 5other cave entrances within 3 kmPerte du Volp, Résurgence du Volp, Perte du Malet and 2 more
- 1springs within 2 kmRésurgence du Volp
- 2sinkholes within 3 kmPerte du Malet, Perte du Volp
- 1marked hiking routes within 3 kmChemin du Piémont Pyrénéen
- 2campsites within 8 kmCamping Parc de Paletes, Camping Parc d'Audinac
- 18hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmLa Maison blanche, Château de Beauregard, Le Valier and 15 more
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints 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
- 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).
Towns nearby
- Montjoie-en-Couserans5.4 km in a straight line
- Saint-Lizier6.9 km in a straight line
- Saint-Girons7.5 km in a straight line
- Montesquieu-Volvestre20 km in a straight line
- Cazères22 km in a straight line
- Salies-du-Salat22 km in a straight line
- Martres-Tolosane25 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 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 17 | 20 | 26 | 29 | 29 | 24 | 20 | 13 | 10 |
| Afternoon | 9 | 10 | 13 | 17 | 20 | 26 | 29 | 29 | 24 | 20 | 13 | 10 |
| Night | 1 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 1 |
| Rain (mm) | 86 | 64 | 72 | 83 | 95 | 64 | 54 | 53 | 56 | 70 | 90 | 69 |
| Rainy days | 12 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 14 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 12 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.8 | 4.6 | 6.0 | 6.8 | 7.3 | 8.7 | 9.0 | 8.4 | 7.4 | 5.4 | 3.5 | 3.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 12 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 11 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 9 | 9 | 1 | 86 | 2.8 |
| Feb | 10 | 10 | 0 | 64 | 4.6 |
| Mar | 13 | 13 | 3 | 72 | 6.0 |
| Apr | 17 | 17 | 6 | 83 | 6.8 |
| May | 20 | 20 | 9 | 95 | 7.3 |
| Jun | 26 | 26 | 13 | 64 | 8.7 |
| Jul | 29 | 29 | 15 | 54 | 9.0 |
| Aug | 29 | 29 | 15 | 53 | 8.4 |
| Sep | 24 | 24 | 12 | 56 | 7.4 |
| Oct | 20 | 20 | 8 | 70 | 5.4 |
| Nov | 13 | 13 | 4 | 90 | 3.5 |
| Dec | 10 | 10 | 1 | 69 | 3.0 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (486 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 | 89% | 50% | 125% | 126% | 107% | 147% | 71% | 114% | 168% | 183% | 65% | 210% |
| 2021 | 91% | 87% | 26% | 41% | 52% | 133% | 75% | 49% | 137% | 62% | 147% | 140% |
| 2022 | 55% | 35% | 94% | 84% | 28% | 59% | 74% | 82% | 134% | 18% | 130% | 49% |
| 2023 | 101% | 37% | 53% | 59% | 80% | 167% | 80% | 98% | 85% | 83% | 122% | 98% |
| 2024 | 52% | 116% | 117% | 73% | 94% | 93% | 63% | 73% | 165% | 203% | 48% | 86% |
| 2025 | 35% | 17% | 116% | 47% | 42% | 25% | 95% | 86% | 77% | 15% | 45% | 67% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Trois Frères Cave
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 486 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Grotte du Mas-d'Azil
France · 12 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 416 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Cave of Tuc d'Audoubert
France · 1 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 463 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Cave of Niaux
France · 39 km
- —Depth
- 2.0 kmGalleries
- 718 mEntrance altitude
- 11 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q736006) · 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.
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