Caves With Tallest Cave Entrances

Cave entrances are often much bigger than the cave behind. The explanation is simple: they are in the reach of outside weather conditions, and thus subject to weather related erosion. There is sun heating the rock, cold winds and frost cooling the rock, the continuous temperature change makes the rock brittle. Water from the humid air of the cave sits in cracks in the rock, if the outside freezes in winter the water becomes ice, expands, and destroys teh rock from inside.

To determine the size of the entrance portal, there are actually only two numbers which can be measured, the height and the width of the portal. The portal itself is defined easily, its the cross section of the cave where the cave ends, thats exactly the line where rain from above would end.

Through history, with every huger cave entrance discovered, the formerly biggest cave entrance became the second biggest, and so on. Unfortunatly the term "biggest cave portal" stays, once coined, almost undefinitely.

Height Width Name Description
210m CaveGruta Casa de Pedra, Brazil the Gruta Casa de Pedra (House of Rock) in Brazil has an entrance which is 210m high.
120m 100m ShowcaveGua Payau (Deer Cave), Gunung Mulu Park, Sarawak, Malaysia Deer Cave has the world's largest cave entrance, 100m wide and 120m high, and the largest single cave passage in the world, also about 120 - 150m wide and high.
80m 30m CaveGrotte de Bournillon The entrance portal is said to be the biggest cave entrance in Europe. Its size is 30m wide and 80m high.
74m 64m ShowcaveTeng Long Dong , China Soaring Dragon Cave has one of the tallest cave entrances, 74m high and 64m wide.
53m 38m ShowcaveGunsight Cave , Carlsbad Caverns, NM, USA. The entrance of Gunsight Cave at Carlsbad is 53m high and 38m wide.
50m 25m ShowcavePotpecka Pecina , Yugoslavia The entrance is shaped like a huge horseshoe, 50m high, 25m wide in the arch and 16m wide at the base. It is the largest cave entrance in Serbia.
21m 42m ShowcaveGrutas de Cacahuamilpa , México The cavern mouth measures 21m in height and 42m in width.
3m 20m CavePorth yr Ogof , Wales, Great Britain. Porth yr Ogof is the largest cave entrance in Wales and one of the largest anywhere in the United Kingdom. It is nearly 20m wide and some 3m high.
16m 33m ShowcaveSmoo Cave , Great Britain. Smoo Cave has the largest entrance of any sea cave in the British Isles. The huge entrance, 33m wide and 16m high, leads into the first chamber which is more than 60m long and 40m wide.
ShowcaveHidden River Cave , KY, USA. Kentucky's largest show cave entrance.
18m 30m ShowcavePeak Cavern , Great Britain. The entrance of Peak Cavern (The Devil's Arse), Castleton, Derbyshire, is the largest cave entrance in the British Isles. It is 18m high, 30m wide, and 105m long.
28m 33m CaveGreen's Cave , MO, USA. The cave entrance is 28m high and 33m wide, and said to be the largest cave opening west of the Mississippi.
10m 27m CaveSpilia Agia Paraskevi , Crete, Greece. The entrance to the cave is a large arch, 27m wide and 10m high.
7.6m 38.4m ShowcaveCathedral Caverns , AL, USA. Claims to have the widest entrance of any commercial cave in the world(?), which is 7.6m high by 38.4m wide.