Gavarnie [key], village (1993 est. pop. 177), Hautes-Pyrénées dept., SW France, in the central Pyrenees. Nearby are a celebrated waterfall, 1,385 ft (422 m) high, and a gigantic natural amphitheater, the Cirque de Gavarnie. The amphitheater rises in concentric levels from an altitude of c.5,740 ft (1,750 m) and is enclosed by crests reaching altitudes of more than 9,000 ft (2,743 m). The famous Brèche de Roland gorge is a cleft in one of the crests.
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