Vézère Valley

There are some 200 prehistoric sites in the Vézère Valley. The most important one is the Lascaux cave, a labyrinth of caves and passageways that was discovered in 1940. It is thought that the cave was used for magical rites and numerous 15,000-years old rock paintings have been found there, as well as hominid remains.

Unfortunately, the original rock paintings have been damaged by exhalations from people visiting the cave and nowadays you can only see replicas. The original paintings have been sealed off to protect them from further degradation. More rock paintings can be found in several other caves in the area.

The cave systems were added to the UNESCO list of world heritage sites in 1979.

The 211-km-long Vézère river runs through the Vézère Valley.

Good places to stay when you want to visit the Vézère Valley are the nearby towns of Montignac-Lascaux and Sarlat-la-Canéda.

Hotels in Vézère Valley

Images

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