Grotte Chauvet 2 - Ardèche, Cave replica museum in Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France.
Grotte Chauvet 2 - Ardèche is a full-scale reconstruction of a cave system in Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France, built across forested land to display reproductions of early animal drawings. Visitors follow a circuit through several chambers showing copied walls with bears, mammoths, and panthers.
The original cave was found by three explorers in the late 20th century and closed to the public immediately afterward. This replica opened in 2015 to provide access to the imagery while protecting the preserved rock art.
Visitors walk past life-size models of extinct animals and learn how early communities prepared pigments from minerals found in nearby valleys. The walkways reflect how people moved through underground spaces carrying torches, creating shadows on rock walls.
Tours follow paved paths through climate-controlled spaces designed to match the temperature and humidity of the original cave. Visitors should bring non-slip footwear as some sections slope downward.
More than 1,000 animal images were transferred onto the artificial walls, over twice as many as visitors would see inside the sealed original cave. Handprints of some artists appear beside the animal figures, showing how small the hands of these people were.
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