Direct numerical simulation of the flow in a lid-driven cubical cavity has been carried out at a Reynolds number above 10 000. Both transient and steady-in-the-mean states of the flow posses long time scales requiring long integration times. A large fraction of the total kinetic energy and dissipation is concentrated in the near-lid mean flow. The flow over most of the domain is laminar with distinct wall-jet profiles found in three of the walls. The high momentum fluid near the lid transmits its energy into a downflowing nonparallel wall jet which separates ahead of the bottom wall. From the collision of this separated layer against the bottom wall two wall jets emerge. In this process the energy lost to turbulence by the impingement is partly recovered by the emerging wall jets. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S1070-6631(00)01206-X].