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Virtual Tour

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Discover the cave

The discovery of the monumental Lascaux cave in 1940 brought with it a new era in our knowledge of both prehistoric art and human origins. Today, the cave continues to feed our collective imagination and to profoundly move new generations of visitors from around the world.

Visit Lascaux

Lascaux II, Lascaux III and, since 2016, Lascaux IV - International Centre for Parietal Art, allows visitors from around the world to discover these exceptionnal, inaccessible works, and to live a unique, sense-filled experience.

1. Practical Information

2. Lascaux IV

3. Lascaux II&III

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The discovery of the monumental Lascaux cave in 1940 brought with it a new era in our knowledge of both prehistoric art and human origins. Today, the cave continues to feed our collective imagination and to profoundly move new generations of visitors from around the world.

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This is the trailer, but the entire documentary is available on Netflix.

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Cave of Forgotten Dreams Free Online The Cave of Dreams Forgottrn Cave of Dreams The Forgotten Caves Cave of Forgoten Dreams France Cave of Dreams Cave of Forgotten Dreams 2010 Cave of Forgotten Dreams Movie YouTube Cave of Forgotten Dreams Werner Herzog Cave of Forgotten Dreams Designer Perfume Cave of Forgotten Dreams 2011

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Walking into the Past in Madhya Pradesh's Bhimbetka Rock Shelters

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Walking through Bhimbetka Rock Shelters is like walking in a Stone Age version of the Louvre. It is the largest repository of prehistoric art in India, and also the only which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Out of an estimated 750 rock shelters, over 400 are adorned with paintings, and 15 of the best have been made accessible to tourists via walkways and signposting.

Although most of the art is between six to nine thousand years old, archaeological researchers think that the site was in use as early as 100,000 BC, well before the art of painting evolved. The most current artwork seen here dates to 400 years ago and is comparatively modern, showing kings on horseback, and sword- and shield-wielding soldiers. From that time the caves were forgotten, until everything was rediscovered by Indian archaeologists in 1957. The first archaeological dig was only in 1971.

The artwork here tells stories and provides a window into the lives of prehistoric men: there's hunting, dancing, royal processions, the drawings are spellbinding and thought-provoking in equal measure. Most of the artworks are in white, but some artists also used ochre, red, and green. About 12 styles of two-dimensional painting have been identified, from silhouettes to X-ray style drawings and outlines filled in with geometric patterns. The rocks themselves have been windblown into fantastical shapes too.

Take a glimpse through the marvels of Bhimbetka through the video below:

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Video: Walking into the Past in Madhya Pradesh's Bhimbetka Rock Shelters

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Walking through Bhimbetka Rock Shelters is like walking in a Stone Age version of the Louvre. It is the largest repository of prehistoric art in India, and also the only which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

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by Jean Clottes, Jean Courtin, Luc Vanrell

A few facts must be recalled before presenting our new discoveries. The Cosquer Cave (Marseille, France) was discovered in 1985 by a diver, Henri Cosquer, deep under the sea (the original entrance is about 115 feet below present-day sea level) but its paintings were not mentioned until 1991 after three divers died in the cave when they got lost.

The gallery slopes up for about 360 feet under water before reaching a huge chamber that partly remained above the sea and where many prehistoric paintings and engravings are preserved on the walls, as well as remains on the ground (charcoal from fires and torches, a few flint tools). This is the only painted cave in the world with an entrance below present-day sea level where cave art has been preserved from the flooding that occurred when the seas rose after the end of the last glaciation (Clottes & Courtin 1994, 1996).

Right from the start, it was obvious that the discovery of the Cosquer Cave was both an important and original art find. It was located in a provence of France near Marseilles, an area where no Palaeolithic art had ever been discovered. This highlighted a supposedly well-known but rarely referred to problem, which is the disappearance of uncounted prehistoric caves under the sea all along the Mediterranean and other shores since Ice Age times. Several large caves are next to Cosquer. A number of them could have been - and probably were - lived in, painted or engraved.

Despite the destructions due to the sea, Cosquer ranks among the few caves where more than 150 animal figures have been found.

Hand stencils now total 65, the highest number in Europe except for Gargas (Hautes-Pyrénées) and possibly El Castillo in Spain. They are all located in the east side of the chamber, with one in the south. None is in the west. Right at the brink of a 57 feet deep vertical shaft – a location which in itself is significant - they are all black. On other panels, they may be black or red. One positive red hand has been found. A number of hand stencils have been scratched or painted over with dots and bars.

Photo Jean Clottes

Photo Luc Vanrell

Photo Jean Clottes

Only adult hand stencils have been found. Many of them have incomplete fingers: they were realized by bending the fingers. Hand stencils with incomplete fingers had until very recently only been found in very few caves, mostly in the Pyrénées (Gargas, Tibiran, Fuente del Trucho). Now, we know that the phenomenon was far more widely represented than had been thought. The now established fact that roughly at the same time such hand stencils were being made in sites hundreds of miles apart should deal a death blow to the theory of pathologic mutilations: how likely would it be that human groups living at such distances from one another should independently develop the same crippling diseases and should react in the same way by immortalizing them on the walls of the caves by means of the same techniques?

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The Cave Art Paintings of the Cosquer Cave

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The Cosquer Cave in Marseille, France lies deep under the sea where many prehistoric rock art paintings and rock art engravings are preserved. The discovery of the Cosquer Cave is an important rock art find in an area of France where no Palaeolithic cave art had ever been discovered.

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28 - Jean Clottes - La visite d’expertise du 29 décembre 1994

Jean Clottes revient sur la visite d'expertise de la grotte Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, qu'il a menée le 29 décembre 1994, quelques jours après la découverte de la grotte.

Marc Azéma. Centre National de Préhistoire. Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication

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Découverte le dimanche 18 décembre 1994 par Jean-Marie Chauvet, Éliette Brunel et Christian Hillaire à l'occasion d'une exploration spéléologique privée, la grotte Chauvet-Pont d'Arc est l'une des plus anciennes grottes paléolithiques ornées du monde.