Rideaux cave, Cave and prehistoric archaeological site in Lespugue, France

The Rideaux cave is a rock shelter nestled within the Save river gorges in Lespugue, France, hidden among high gray limestone cliffs. The narrow entrance leads into a quiet space with uneven floors and rough walls, where archaeological layers reveal flint tools, bones, and artifacts spanning multiple periods.

René de Saint-Périer first reached the cave in 1911 and found its entrance partly walled up, a remnant of its use as a fortified post in the Middle Ages. The cave was occupied mainly during the Lower Magdalenian, and its deposits also yielded Aurignacian bone points, Solutrean and Magdalenian material. In 1922 it produced the Venus of Lespugue, carved from mammoth ivory.

The cave's name comes from the draperies of calcite that once hung in its entrance. It is the largest known cave on the right bank of the Save, 18 m long, 8 m wide and 6 m high, and it adjoins the Grotte des Ours. A decorated rib bearing three snake figures, a rare image in Upper Palaeolithic art, was found here.

The cave opens in the middle limestone ledge of the Save gorges, about 1,400 m downstream from the Notre-Dame mill and directly below the ruins of Lespugue castle. It is 18 m long, 8 m wide and 6 m high, and it adjoins the Grotte des Ours. Do not confuse it with the Abri Sous-les-Rideaux, which lies just below it on the lowest ledge.

The cave also yielded a rib engraved with three snake figures, a rare image in Upper Palaeolithic art. The Venus of Lespugue, found here in 1922, is 147 mm tall, not 6 cm, and is kept at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris.