The prehistoric writing’s on the walls
Amazing replicas of 20,000-year-old cave paintings in southwest France transport tourists back in time
I looked up and stopped breathing.
The hammering and bright lamps of workers putting the final touches on the replica of the famous Lascaux cave faded to nothing.
Here were perfect copies of the cave paintings that have been dubbed the Sistine Chapel of the prehistoric world, the 20,000-yearold images that changed the way modern man perceived Paleolithic man.
I wondered if I was over-reacting until I saw another woman on the tour emerge from the cave with tears in her eyes.
“We are all Cro-Magnon men,” said Guillaume Colombo, the enthusiastic general manager of the Montignac-Lascaux Parietal Art International Centre (CIAP). “The people who painted Lascaux are our direct ancestors.
“So for us, it’s very important to explain to people that the people that painted Lascaux had the same preoccupations, the same ideas, the same questions as we can have now in our modern civilization.”
The actual Lascaux cave sits about 200 metres away up a slight incline.
Four boys and their dog from a nearby village discovered the cave in 1940 after the animal fell through a hole in the hillside. After keeping the find hidden from the Nazis during the Second World War, the cave was opened to the public for two decades.
In 1963, concern that human breath had been responsible for deterioration inside this irreplaceable treasure prompted officials to close it to the general public.
Today even archeologists are kept out from what has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
While the Vezere valley is home to 147 prehistoric sites and 25 painted caves, the Lascaux drawings of about 100 animal figures are considered “remarkable for their detail, rich colours and lifelike quality,” UNESCO says.
A partial replica of the cave, known as Lascaux 2, subsequently opened and can be accessed by the public.
Before visiting, I had wondered if the whole experience would be cheesy or exploitative.
Instead, the cave has been replicated right down to the temperature and light of the original.
Overhead are the paintings exactly as they appear in the Lascaux cave — a wonder made possible by digital advances.
“The feeling for the visitors will be very, very close to entering the original cave,” Colombo said.
Modern technology is used to the fullest extent here to transport visitors back in time. There are even replications of paintings that were found below the original cave, including an incredibly rare representation of a human figure (an excited male).
Adult tickets cost 16 euros (about $25). There are discounts for children.