Japan Waterfall UNESCO World Heritage

Nachi Falls

A 133 m drop.

When to go

Alpsdake · CC0

In numbers.

133m

Height

0.38m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Jun–Jul
Sep–Oct

Best months

489kW

Water power

estimate

The water at Nachi Falls, month by month

It roars from June to October.

The fullest months: from June to October.

0.2 m³/sJan
0.2 m³/sFeb
0.3 m³/sMar
0.4 m³/sApr
0.4 m³/sMay
0.6 m³/sJun
0.6 m³/sJul
0.5 m³/sAug
0.7 m³/sSep
0.7 m³/sOct
0.5 m³/sNov
0.3 m³/sDec

high water best months to go

From about 0.18 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.71 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from June to July and from September to October.

Estimate: the timing comes from rain, snowmelt and evaporation (NASA POWER, 1991–2020); the amounts from the river model of HydroATLAS (WaterGAP, 1971–2000). Dams upstream can change the real flow.

Waterfall in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan

Nachi Falls is a waterfall in Japan. The water falls 133 m over a front 13 m wide. It lies within Yoshino-Kumano National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Getting there.

Katsuuranearest town · 6.5 km in a straight line
Parking 340 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
Nanki Shirahama Airport (SHM)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 49 km in a straight lineCar hire at KIX airport (Osaka)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
From June to July and from September to Octoberbest months to go (estimate)

Plan your visit

Stay, explore and get there

Car hire at KIX airport (Osaka)Discover CarsSee

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.

How big is it?

How big it really is.

Height of the drop from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.

489 kW

About 0.38 m³/s falling 133 m: the power of the water as it drops.

enough to power about 122 homes, if it were all turned into electricity

Power of falling water = density × gravity × flow × height. Average flow and height as shown above; an estimate.

Seen from the sky.

8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.

The 那智川 through the falls

The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.

The valley below the falls

Around the falls the river drops 307 m in 1.9 km. Here the river runs about 119 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

4viewpoints那智滝 and 3 more
1waymarked walking routes熊野古道中辺路大雲取越
14car parks
—swimming spots
2picnic sites
12toilets
22information boards and visitor centres
4bus stops within 1 km
—other named waterfalls within 4 km
—caves
—campsites
24hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmホテルシャルモント, Nakanoshima Ryokan, ホテル浦島 and 21 more
5restaurants and cafés within 3 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

Towns nearby

Katsuura6.5 km in a straight line
Shingū11 km in a straight line
Taiji11 km in a straight line
Udono13 km in a straight line
Takaike17 km in a straight line
Hongū21 km in a straight line
Shimo-ichigi23 km in a straight line
Kushimoto25 km in a straight line

Weather

The weather, month by month.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Afternoon °C	9	10	13	17	20	23	26	27	25	21	17	12
Night °C	4	5	7	12	16	19	23	24	22	17	12	7
Rain & snow (mm)	70	92	125	154	169	241	235	198	259	226	113	84
Wet days	6	8	11	11	12	17	18	17	17	13	9	7
Sun h/day	4.6	4.9	5.7	6.1	6.1	4.3	6.0	7.3	5.5	4.8	4.7	4.4
Snow on the ground (cm)	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (371 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

Kumano Kodo World heritage Nachi-no-taki 熊野古道那智大滝10 — Nekosuki · CC BY-SA 4.0

Seiganto-ji Three-storied Pagoda and Nachi Falls — Suikotei · CC BY-SA 4.0

Kumano Kodo World heritage Nachi-no-taki 熊野古道那智大滝14 — Nekosuki · CC BY-SA 4.0

Recent years

Wet years and dry years

Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2020	195%	101%	115%	120%	88%	104%	244%	19%	135%	131%	42%	35%
2021	172%	46%	205%	138%	182%	80%	147%	179%	131%	31%	79%	104%
2022	52%	23%	109%	125%	117%	82%	101%	98%	149%	54%	167%	21%
2023	79%	36%	107%	124%	222%	232%	58%	201%	55%	49%	97%	71%
2024	69%	189%	225%	160%	193%	171%	69%	167%	71%	127%	120%	6%
2025	47%	28%	82%	85%	267%	124%	135%	43%	89%	123%	66%	114%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Nachi Falls

Japan

133 mHeight
0.38 m³/sAverage flow
Jun–Jul, Sep–OctBest months

Nunobiki Falls

Japan

—Height
0.31 m³/sAverage flow
Jun–Jul, Sep–OctBest months

See the guide

Minoh Falls

Japan

—Height
0.55 m³/sAverage flow
Jun–Jul, Sep–OctBest months

See the guide

Amagoi Falls

Japan

45 mHeight
—Average flow
Jul–OctBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, river	Wikidata (Q1365882) · CC0
River flow and catchment	HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0
Climate	NASA POWER, 1991–2020
Relief, river profile, 3D model	Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Paths, viewpoints, parking	© 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.