Paintings 27,000 years old
Horses, ibex, seabirds and handprints from the ice age.
SiefkinDR — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Georges Seguin (Okki) — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Kleber Rossillon & Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur / Sources 3D MC — CC BY-SA 4.0 · This illustration was made by Peter Potrowl. Please credit this with : © Peter Potrowl in the immediate vicinity of the image. A link to my website sitemai.eu would be much appreciated but isn't manda — CC BY-SA 4.0
A full-scale replica of the Cosquer cave, a cave decorated with prehistoric painting that cannot be reached because its entrance lies below sea level. The story is exceptional: the diver Henri Cosquer found the cave in 1985 through a tunnel some hundred and seventy metres long beginning thirty-seven metres underwater. Inside he found paintings between nineteen and twenty-seven thousand years old. The reason it is underwater is that sea level in the ice age stood about a hundred and twenty metres lower, so the cave was on dry land when it was painted. The rise after the ice melted drowned its entrance and two thirds of it, destroying most of what had been painted in the lower parts. The surviving images include horses, ibex and auks — the last extremely rare in prehistoric art — along with handprints. The original cave will never open: reaching it is a dangerous dive, and divers have died there. This replica was built in a waterfront building and opened in 2022, and you move through it in small vehicles. Booking ahead is strongly advisable, and visits run at set times.
Horses, ibex, seabirds and handprints from the ice age.
Sea level stood a hundred and twenty metres lower when they were painted — then rose.
Henri Cosquer found it in 1985 through a tunnel starting 37 metres down.
Villa Méditerranée, the Marseille waterfront
No, and it never will be possible. Its entrance is thirty-seven metres underwater followed by a dark tunnel some hundred and seventy metres long, and diving to it is among the most dangerous dives in the region — divers have died attempting it. The site is officially closed and protected, and the replica is the only way to see it.
Both copy a closed cave, but Lascaux was closed to protect it from damage while Cosquer is closed because it is genuinely underwater. Lascaux's paintings are more famous and more numerous; Cosquer is older in parts and holds seabirds found at no other site. Both are worth it, and Cosquer is nearer if you are in the south.
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