We owe the discovery of Lascaux, one of the finest of all prehistoric caves, to luck and a group of children. It was purely by chance that a bolt of lightning struck a tree, which as it collapsed, left a gaping hole beneath its roots. Four youngsters playing together accidentally discovered the cave in 1940 and were the first to see the beautiful paintings and carvings hidden within.
As soon as a visitor enters the sanctuary they are immediately confronted with a full scale artistic composition. The first chamber, called the Chamber of Bulls, is the most impressive area of the whole cave complex. Numerous animal paintings adorn the walls of the chamber, primarily bulls. The artists in this chamber were especially careful not to encroach on previous paintings which resulted in a rich tapestry of works from different time periods. Preliminary research suggests that paintings rendered exclusively in reds or yellows are the earliest and date from 170,000. One of the most impressive works is the Great Bull. Measuring 5.5 meters long, the Great Bull is the largest prehistoric painting found. The composition of the head is magnificent. However, like so many other paintings here, a sizable portion of rock has detached from the wall and was found lying on the ground soon after the cave was opened.
Although most of the Paleolithic paintings here are animals, many abstract signs can also be found throughout the cave. Of all the paintings in the Chamber of Bulls, one stands out in particular. Dubbed the Unicorn, this animal has unusually large hindquarters and a pronounced abdomen. In addition, two elongated horns protrude strait from the head. Strangest of all is the head, which when viewed from a certain angle resembles a human face.
Towards the rear of the chamber a long corridor is visible. It is adorned with many red cows. Here the sense of perspective was a major preoccupation of the Paleolithic artists. Some cows have an eccentric look about them, contrasting the seriousness of the other paintings. Although the paintings are rendered in the simplest way possible, they still seem to be full of life and movement.
The third chamber was once a low tunnel approximately 3 meters high. The rock faces are extremely fragile and only the lower portions have resisted erosion. Originally the whole of the area must have been strewn with paintings, but thousands of years of air currents modified the humidity which eroded most of the paintings. Occasionally one can make out the faint lines of a horse or ibex. A careful inventory of the 209 figures shows 122 horses, 25 wild oxen, 2 bison, 4 ibex and a large number of abstract shapes.
The Nave, named so because of its architectural resemblance to a cathedral, is the next chamber in the complex. Here the underground gallery widens. The walls of the Nave are built of yellow ochre colored rock, soft enough to permit engravings. At the entrance to the nave seven ibex look towards the chamber on the left side. Originally they were painted but now only faintly scratched outlines remain. Some of the paintings in the nave are as high as 14 feet, which suggests that the artists must have used scaffolding.
The space called the Fighting Bison is set aside from the others in a recess close to the end of the Nave. Two exaggerated bison appear to be in conflict with each other. Colored strokes implying the rear legs of the bison seem to be detached, giving the bison an interesting concept of depth. This technique is found in cave paintings elsewhere but never quite as perfectly as here. At the bottom of the Nave is the entrance to the Gallery of the Great Cats. Few visitors have been lucky enough to see this far. The gallery of the Great Cats is a narrow passageway only a meter wide. In contrast to the Chamber of the Bulls, the engravings here are meant to be viewed by one person at a time. This is one of the most secret parts of the caves. The Great Cats are engraved on both sides of the entrance. After crossing a well we come to the final paintings of this chamber: a portrait of a bison, a shape resembling the roman numeral 13, and then a line of red dots.
It is not known for how long or how often the caves were frequented. Visits here may have been rare but the archaeological evidence suggests otherwise. Many bones, lamps and stone tools have been found discarded on the floor. To the Paleolithic people that inhabited it, the cave must have seemed like a suitable place to immortalize his myths, to transmit them to the future generations. For his religious ceremonies the colored animals depicted here were no less than sacred. So miraculous are these paintings that thousands of tourists flocked to the site. Unfortunately, soon after the cave was opened, algae and bacteria began invading the rock walls. A film of calcite began to spread. Had it been allowed to continue it would have eaten into the paintings and destroyed them. It, therefore, became necessary to close the caves in 1963. The paintings at Lascaux have survived but due to the environmental risk only very limited access is granted.