Cirque de Navacelles, Natural cirque in Occitania, France

Cirque de Navacelles is a deep, steep-sided valley cut into a limestone plateau where the Vis River once looped in a wide meander. The river now runs along the flat valley floor and spills through a rocky notch at the lower end in a stepped waterfall. A low oval hill rises from the green meadow that bends around the abandoned meander, and a small cluster of grey-roofed buildings sits at the inner edge.

The Vis cut off the neck of its own meander about 6,000 years ago, helped by tufa deposits that raised the river bed. Deforestation and cultivation of the causse then increased runoff, and the tufas were incised some ten metres downstream to Madières, fixing the cut-off for good.

The name Navacelles comes from the Latin Nova Cella, recorded in a 10th-century charter of the Gellone cartulary as Novacella. Monks of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert were active here for centuries, and the hamlet's Guilhou quarter is named after Saint-Guilhem. The hamlet straddles the Hérault and Gard departments, and the spelling Navacelles only became standard in the 20th century.

The main viewing platforms are accessible from the villages of Blandas and Baume Auriol, each offering different perspectives of the valley. The approaches to these spots are generally accessible and allow visitors to appreciate the formation from multiple angles.

The Vis has been recorded running dry at its resurgence only rarely: for 24 hours in 1890, two hours in 1922, eight hours in 1927 and six hours in 1961. Since 20 November 2012 the EDF plant at Madières, 12 km downstream, has diverted part of the flow into a canal, so the river does not always cross the waterfall.