France cliff
Pointe du Hoc
You can see 50 km from here, looking west.
Calculating the panorama…
Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.
The view
Up to 50 km away.
Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.
Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).
- 50 kmFarthest ridgelooking west
- 99%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
- 35%Seaof the circle where the horizon is the sea
- 2Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
- 22 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint
The 2 peaks you can name from here
From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.
From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.
The sun
The best sunsets are in April, from June to July and in September.
When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.
- Jansouth-west10 min before the sea-level sunset23%
- Febwest6 min before the sea-level sunset25%
- Marwest6 min before the sea-level sunset30%
- Aprwest6 min before the sea-level sunset38%
- Maynorth-west6 min before the sea-level sunset36%
- Junnorth-west6 min before the sea-level sunset37%
- Julnorth-west6 min before the sea-level sunset40%
- Augwest6 min before the sea-level sunset37%
- Sepwest4 min before the sea-level sunset38%
- Octwest6 min before the sea-level sunset28%
- Novsouth-west8 min before the sea-level sunset23%
- Decsouth-west12 min before the sea-level sunset23%
- Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
- Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
- %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).
The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.
The place
Pointe du Hoc.
Point of attack during Operation Overlord in World War II
Pointe du Hoc is a cliff in France, 22 m above the sea.
On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 50 km away, looking west.
The sea fills 35% of the horizon.
2 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Montagne du Roule (112 m), 52 km away.
The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 99% of the circle.
The skies are clearest in April, from June to July and in September.
Get there and stay
- Camping Le Pont du Hablecampsite · 2.3 km · 18 within 10 km
- La Grandcopaiseplace to stay · 4.1 km · 26 within 10 km
- Grandcamp-Maisynearest town · 3.6 km in a straight linePlaces to stay in Grandcamp-MaisyBooking.com · sponsored link↗
- Caen Carpiquet airport (CFR)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 46 km in a straight lineCar hire at CFR airport (Caen)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
A guided tour, 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 viewpoint and its surroundings.
The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.
Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 3other viewpoints within 5 km
- 1marked trails within 3 km
- 6shelters and huts within 5 km
- 9car parks within 3 km
- 2visitor centres within 5 kmOffice de Tourisme Intercommunal, Point d'information touristique
- 1restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- 18campsites within 10 kmCamping Le Pont du Hable, Ferme de la Rouge Fosse, Grandcamp-Maisy and 15 more
- 26places to stay within 10 kmLa Grandcopaise, Ferme Hay Day, Ferme de Savigny and 23 more
- named peaks within 5 km
- cable car and funicular stations within 5 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
In our other atlases
What you see from Pointe du Hoc, and what is near.
Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.
Birdyas1 birding sites within 25 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.
Photographs
The view, as people saw it.
Other viewpoints nearby.
Pointe du Hoc
France
- 62Viewyas Score
- 50 kmFarthest ridge
- 2Peaks in view
- 22 mAltitude
Gad Cliff
United Kingdom · 159 km
- 83Viewyas Score
- 124 kmFarthest ridge
- 28Peaks in view
- 128 mAltitude
Ballard Cliff
United Kingdom · 153 km
- 79Viewyas Score
- 95 kmFarthest ridge
- 69Peaks in view
- 115 mAltitude
Swyre Head
United Kingdom · 165 km
- 80Viewyas Score
- 115 kmFarthest ridge
- 22Peaks in view
- 91 mAltitude
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q284649) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Sun | J. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms |
| Peaks in view | Peakyas (Wikidata, CC0) |
| Panorama and altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Clouds | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Coastya, Birdyas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit 
lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Visit 
mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Visit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit 
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit 
caves
Every cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.Visit 
dark skies
Where the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Visit 
viewpoints
Every viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.You are herebirdwatching
Every bird sanctuary and wetland with the species recorded month by month: who is resident, who comes for the summer, who only passes through.Visit 
forests
Every forest with its land-cover rings, what grows and lives in it, and the best months to walk it.Visit