Lascaux Caves

Lascaux

depiction of aurochs, horses and deer
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Location	Montignac, France
Coordinates	45°02′57″N 1°10′34″E / 45.0492°N 1.1761°E / 45.0492; 1.1761
Criteria	Cultural: (i), (iii)
Reference	85-011
Inscription	1979 (3rd Session)
Website	www.lascaux.culture.fr
Location of Lascaux
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Lascaux, (French: Grotte de Lascaux, "Lascaux Cave"; English: /læsˈkoʊ/,French: [lasko]) is the setting of a complex of caves near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne in southwestern France. Over 600 parietal wall paintings decorate the interior walls and ceilings of the cave. The paintings are primarily of large animals, typical local and contemporary fauna that correspond with the fossil record of the Upper Paleolithic time. The drawings are the combined effort of many generations, and with continued debate, the paintings are estimated around 17,000 years BP. Lascaux was inducted into the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list in 1979, as element of the Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley.

On September 12, 1940, the entrance to the Lascaux Cave was discovered by 18 year old Marcel Ravidat. Ravidat (died in 1995) returned to the scene with three friends, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel, and Simon Coencas, and entered the cave via a long shaft. The teenagers discovered that the cave walls were covered with depictions of animals. Galleries that suggest continuity, context or simply represent a cavern were given names. Those include the Hall of the Bulls, the Passageway, the Shaft, the Nave, the Apse, and the Chamber of Felines. The cave complex was opened to the public in 1948. By 1955, carbon dioxide, heat, humidity, and other contaminants produced by 1,200 visitors per day had visibly damaged the paintings. As air condition deteriorated fungi and lichen increasingly infested the walls. Consequently the cave was closed to the public in 1963, the paintings were restored to their original state and a monitoring system on a daily basis was introduced.