Monday, August 10, 2026 Search My Trip EnglishChinese
World news · travel · culture
Taiwan The Taiwan Times
Taiwan's window to the world

Lascaux

Lascaux (English: la-SKOH, US also lah-SKOH, French: Grotte de Lascaux French pronunciation: [ɡʁɔt də lasko], "Lascaux Cave") is a network of caves near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne in southwestern France. Over 600 parietal wall paintings cover the interior walls and ceilings of the cave. The paintings represent primarily large animals, typical local contemporary fauna that correspond with the fossil record of the Upper Paleolithic in the area. They are the combined effort of many generations. With continued debate, the age of the paintings is now usually estimated at 17,000 to 22,000 years (early Magdalenian). Because of the outstanding prehistoric art in the cave, Lascaux was inducted into the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979, as an element of the Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley. The original caves have been closed to the public since 1963, as their condition was quickly deteriorating, but there are now a number of replicas.

Cave data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

More caves in France

  1. Rivière souterraine de Labouiche10 km
  2. Cave of Niaux2 km
  3. Abri Reverdit
  4. Abri de la Madeleine
  5. Arago cave

Other notable caves worldwide

  1. Mammoth Cave · Australia686 km
  2. Sistema Sac Actun · Mexico119.2 m
  3. Lechuguilla Cave · United States489 m
  4. Optymistychna Cave · Ukraine20 m
  5. Veryovkina Cave · Georgia2,212 m
  6. Krubera Cave · Georgia2,199 m
  7. Sarma cave · Georgia1,830 m
  8. Clearwater Cave · Malaysia109 km