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The Lascaux caves are one of the biggest Paleolithic caves in the world in terms of quality and number of prehistoric paintings. Some intellectual calls it the “prehistoric Versailles”.

The dates of the paintings are still unknown but some experts estimate that they were drawn between 18000 and 17000 years B.C. Moreover, there are some arguments about who painted these masterpieces. Some paleontologists think these early paintings were done by the Magdalenians whereas others estimate that they were the work of the Solutrean people.
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The cave is located in the Perigord noir, in the Vezere valley and 25 minutes away from the charming Sarlat la Caneda.  It was discovered by some young walkers in 1940, by the village of Montignac in the Dordogne region.
This unique cave quickly gained a reputation and in the 1950’s the cavern received more than 1000 visitors a day! Unfortunately, this sudden success caused damage to the cave as the carbon dioxide emitted by the visitors led to the apparition of two diseases:

-          The  “maladie verte” (green disease): Characterized by the apparition of algae all over the paintings and leading to the closing of the cave.

-          The “maladie Blanche” (white disease): Resulting in  the apparition of mold in the cavern, this particularly strong bacteria is still present in the cave despite all the efforts of experts to stop it.

Therefore, the minister of culture, Andre Malraux, decided in 1963 to forbid access to the cave to visitors. The cavern remained close until 1983 when a new system was installed to completely change the aeration of the cavern and since that date the site is now open to everyone.
Nevertheless, the cavern is still in peril as the cave is now infected by extremely resistant bacteria and a committee of experts has been trying to fight this issue for the last 10 years now without success as yet.
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The cave in itself is not very big, however it contains over 600 paintings . The subjects of the paintings are almost entirely animals but some of them are now extinct. For instance, the bulls featured are actually aurochs, a horned bovine species that died out in the Middle Ages.The paintings also represent horses, cats, bison and an unidentified two horned animal (nicknamed the “unicorn”).

Since the original cave is facing the danger of bacteria, a second cavern called Lascaux 2 was created in 1983 only a few meters away from the original one. The replica has totally respects the architecture and specificities of both the cave and the paintings.
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The Dordogne is a exceptional department as the  Lascaux cave is but one of numerous other unique sites to visit. There are of course several properties full of history and charm available in the area.