Belle-Roche cave, Prehistoric cave and archaeological site in Sprimont, Belgium

Belle-Roche cave is a prehistoric cave system with four main galleries that extends along considerable length and sits high above the Amblève river. The structure displays different layers containing both empty deposits and areas rich with archaeological finds.

Quarry workers exposed the cave in 1980, but its importance was recognized that same year, prompting rescue excavations until 1998. The site yielded about a hundred flint tools, including two Acheulean hand axes, and thousands of large mammal fossils from the Cromerian interglacial. The stone tools, probably made by Homo heidelbergensis, date to roughly 500,000 years ago, the oldest such assemblage in the Benelux.

The name Belle-Roche comes from the limestone quarry where workers exposed the site in 1980. The cave is a palaeokarst with no visible entrance, so nothing can be visited inside; the excavated bones and flint tools, including two Acheulean hand axes, are displayed at the Grand Curtius museum in Liège.

The cave lies on the upper working platform at the eastern end of the Belle-Roche limestone quarry, about 60 m above the Amblève and 160 m in altitude. It is a filled palaeokarst with no visible entrance from outside, so it cannot be entered. Excavation campaigns ran until 1998, and a 2020 decision by Walloon minister Willy Borsus allowed quarrying to resume while protecting the site. Much excavated material is displayed at the Grand Curtius museum in Liège.

The cave is a filled palaeokarst with no visible entrance from outside; its four galleries lie on the upper working platform at the eastern end of the Belle-Roche limestone quarry. The largest gallery, IV, has a section of 8 by 4 metres, and geophysical surveys suggest the cave runs more than a hundred metres long.