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History–Tours
15,000BCc. 17,000 years ago · Montignac, Dordogne

Lascaux and the painted caves of the Vézère

Charles R. Knight painting of Cro-Magnon artists decorating a cave wall with mammoths
Archival image: Charles Robert Knight. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Ice Age artists covered the walls of a cave above the Vézère valley with hundreds of horses, aurochs, deer and abstract signs, using mineral pigments and the rock's own contours. Found by teenagers in 1940 and closed to protect it in 1963, Lascaux is now seen through an exact replica, while nearby original caves still show their art to small groups.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Lascaux IV, International Centre for Cave ArtA full-size replica of the cave at the foot of the hill holding the original.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: Font-de-Gaume cave, Les EyziesOriginal polychrome bison paintings, one of few painted caves still open.Map ↗

Guides who take you there

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Also in Dordogne and the Vézère Valley

More from the Prehistory

Read more: reference. Summary written by History-Tours.com.