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.
The replica takes its name from the Chauvet Cave, whose three discoverers registered the trademarks in 1998; after a legal dispute, the site was renamed Grotte Chauvet 2 - Ardèche in February 2019. The painted panels were reproduced by workshops such as Arc et Os in Montignac and by Gilles Tosello, using charcoal and pigments as the original artists did.
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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