Romania scenic viewpoint
Franz Joseph Cliffs
You can see 143 km from here, looking south-east.
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 143 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).
- 143 kmFarthest ridgelooking south-east
- 88%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
- 27Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
- 1,300 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint
The 27 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 August.
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-west94 min before the sea-level sunset25%
- Febsouth-west100 min before the sea-level sunset23%
- Marwest104 min before the sea-level sunset29%
- Aprwest114 min before the sea-level sunset32%
- Maywest112 min before the sea-level sunset30%
- Junwest118 min before the sea-level sunset36%
- Julwest116 min before the sea-level sunset45%
- Augwest100 min before the sea-level sunset51%
- Sepwest106 min before the sea-level sunset40%
- Octsouth-west100 min before the sea-level sunset39%
- Novsouth-west94 min before the sea-level sunset30%
- Decsouth-west90 min before the sea-level sunset24%
- 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
Franz Joseph Cliffs.
Rock formation near Sinaia
Franz Joseph Cliffs is a scenic viewpoint in Romania, 1,300 m above the sea.
On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 143 km away, looking south-east.
27 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Clăbucetul Taurului (1,520 m), 12 km away.
The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 88% of the circle.
The skies are clearest in August.

Get there and stay
- Aviatorcampsite · 3.0 km · 7 within 10 km
- Vila Acvilaplace to stay · 1.9 km · 395 within 10 km
- Sinaianearest town · 2.8 km in a straight linePlaces to stay in SinaiaBooking.com · sponsored link↗
- Brașov-Ghimbav International Airport (GHV)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 38 km in a straight lineCar hire at OTP airport (Otopeni)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
- 22other viewpoints within 5 kmStânca cu Clopoței, Stânca Sfânta Ana, Stâncile Franz Josef and 19 more
- 15named peaks within 5 kmFurnica, Jepii Mici, Claia Mare and 12 more
- 19cable car and funicular stations within 5 kmTelecabina Babele, Telecabina Sinaia, Telecabina Bușteni and 16 more
- 14marked trails within 3 kmBușteni - Cabana Piatra Arsă, Canton Schiel/Jepi - Sub Vârful Ciocârlia, Fosta cabană Vârful cu Dor - Cabana Bolboci and 11 more
- 4shelters and huts within 5 kmStână, Stâna din mijloc, Stâna Mare din Cumpătu and 1 more
- 90car parks within 3 km
- 3visitor centres within 5 kmBilete / Intrare castel Cantacuzino, Tourist Information
- 71restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- 7campsites within 10 kmAviator, free campsite, Camping Zănoaga and 4 more
- 395places to stay within 10 kmVila Acvila, Arieșul, Complex Izvorul cu Păstrăvi and 392 more
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 Franz Joseph Cliffs, and what is near.
Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.
Figures 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.
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q5492831) · 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, Lakeyas, Riveryas |
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.






