Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley, Prehistoric caves in Vézère Valley, France
The Vézère Valley contains fifteen decorated caves with passages showing paintings and engravings created during the Upper Paleolithic period, with thousands of artistic images covering their walls. These underground chambers preserve works that have survived through the ages with natural protection from the rock layers above.
People created these artistic expressions on cave walls around 17,000 years ago during a period of important cultural development. Some sites remained hidden until modern times when archaeologists rediscovered them, revealing much about early human societies.
The caves show how early people used art to express themselves through animal images, geometric shapes, and human figures made with natural pigments and carved into rock. These ancient techniques offer direct insight into how our ancestors saw their world and what mattered to them.
Visitors can join guided tours to see these underground artworks, with some caves offering special pathways or transportation for easier access to the passages. Comfortable shoes are essential since floors are uneven and temperatures stay cool year-round in the depths below.
One cave preserves over 200 multicolored paintings of bison, horses, and reindeer executed in black, red, and brown mineral pigments. This rare combination of multiple colors and animal subjects is rarely found with such clarity in other prehistoric sites.
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