The Cirque de Gavarnie, about 2.5 miles (4 km) south of the village, is described by the 19th-century French writer Victor Hugo as “a mountain and a wall at the same time . . . the colosseum of nature.” From its floor, glacially eroded rock walls rise to about 5,000 feet (1,500 m). It has three conspicuous terraces in which precipitous faces are succeeded upward by steep slopes of ice and snow. The Grande Cascade waterfall plunges about 1,400 feet (425 m) from the eastern side. Above the amphitheatre are the high mountain summits of the Franco-Spanish frontier ridge, rising to nearly 11,000 feet (3,350 m). Also conspicuous is the deep cleft known as the Brèche de Roland. Nearby is the Grotte Casteret, containing a frozen underground stream. Pop. (1999) 164; (2004 est.) 154.