France scenic viewpoint
Roche Merveilleuse
You can see 145 km from here, looking south.
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 145 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).
- 145 kmFarthest ridgelooking south
- 76%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
- 2%Seaof the circle where the horizon is the sea
- 6Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
- 1,444 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint
The 6 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 from August to November.
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.
- Janwest36 min before the sea-level sunset40%
- Febwest38 min before the sea-level sunset43%
- Marwest50 min before the sea-level sunset44%
- Aprwest44 min before the sea-level sunset51%
- Maynorth-west38 min before the sea-level sunset52%
- Junnorth-west58 min before the sea-level sunset52%
- Julnorth-west50 min before the sea-level sunset52%
- Augwest36 min before the sea-level sunset53%
- Sepwest60 min before the sea-level sunset56%
- Octwest42 min before the sea-level sunset56%
- Novwest38 min before the sea-level sunset56%
- Decwest38 min before the sea-level sunset52%
- 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
Roche Merveilleuse.
Roche Merveilleuse is a scenic viewpoint in France, 1,444 m above the sea.
On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 145 km away, looking south.
6 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Grand Bénare (2,898 m), 6 km away.
The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 76% of the circle.
The skies are clearest from August to November.
Get there and stay
- camping sauvagecampsite · 1.6 km · 45 within 10 km
- Hôtel des Neigesplace to stay · 1.0 km · 190 within 10 km
- Cilaosnearest town · 1.4 km in a straight linePlaces to stay in CilaosBooking.com · sponsored link↗
- Saint-Pierre Pierrefonds Airport (ZSE)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 22 km in a straight lineCar hire at RUN airport (Sainte-Marie)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
- 51other viewpoints within 5 kmBelvédère de la Roche Merveilleuse, Point de vue du Bras Sec, Vue panoramique sur Marla et La Nouvelle and 48 more
- 28named peaks within 5 kmGros Morne, Sommet de l'Entre-Deux, Bonnet de Prêtre and 25 more
- 7marked trails within 3 kmGR R1, GR R2, Sentier Jacky Inard and 4 more
- 18shelters and huts within 5 kmAbri du Plateau du Petit Matarum and 17 more
- 64car parks within 3 km
- 1visitor centres within 5 kmOffice de Tourisme de Cilaos
- 22restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- 45campsites within 10 kmcamping sauvage, Camping Chez Julien, Camping des 3 Salazes and 42 more
- 190places to stay within 10 kmHôtel des Neiges, Le noisetier, Le Vieux Cep and 187 more
- 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 Roche Merveilleuse, and what is near.
Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.
Peakyas161 mountains within 25 km
Forestyas5 forests and trees within 15 km
Canyonyas3 canyons within 20 km
Cavernyas2 caves within 20 km
Cascadyas9 waterfalls within 15 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.
Roche Merveilleuse
France
- 59Viewyas Score
- 145 kmFarthest ridge
- 6Peaks in view
- 1,444 mAltitude
Piton des Neiges
France · 3 km
- 91Viewyas Score
- 248 kmFarthest ridge
- 19Peaks in view
- 3,040 mAltitude
Cap Anglais
France · 5 km
- 87Viewyas Score
- 228 kmFarthest ridge
- 23Peaks in view
- 2,193 mAltitude
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q2385537) · 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 | Peakyas, Islandyas, Forestyas, Birdyas, Canyonyas, Cavernyas, Cascadyas |
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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