www.speleophilately.com
 

Grotte de Niaux, 7 July 1979

Next to Lascaux and Altamira, Niaux is one of the most famous European centres of prehistoric cave art. The Grotte de Niaux is situated in the French Pyrenees, not far from the Spanish border.

The mountains of the Massif de la Saoudière are separating two rivers, the Ariège (after which the department is called) and the Vicdessos. In the narrow Vicdessos valley, 3 kms south of Tarascon, easy of access by the D8 road, we find the entrance of the Niaux-cave. The Grotte de Niaux is part of a very large cave-system.

The cave is connected with the Grotte de Lombrives, of which the entrance is found in the Ariège valley on the other side of the Saoudière mountains.

More than 10 kilometers are now discovered by cavers, and Hydrological research proved a connection with a third cave, the Grotte de Sabart.

Opposite other caves where prehistoric drawings were found, the enormous size of the Niaux cave is very unusual. Also the distance between the cave entrance and the drawings is remarkable. Most drawings are concentrated round the "Salle Noir", more than 500 meters distance from the entrance.

Between the entrance and the most important animal drawings, many red colored marks were fixed on the walls. Perhaps they were signs or warnings for the prehistoric visitors of the cave. The drawing were dated between the Magdalenian and the Azilian period about 10.000 BC.

All animal drawings are black (manganese oxide) and are placed in a number of separate groups. Most drawings are picturing bison's and next to the large bison's smaller animals like horses, cervids and stags.

On the French Niaux-poststamp a few separate animal drawings from different groups were fixed together. Not only the drawings on the walls, but also the 12.000 year
old footprints of prehistoric visitors were left behind in the cave.

Next to the footprints small animals, like fishes, were carved in the mud on the bottom.

The Niaux-cave was always used as shelter during the last few ages.

In 1757 the cave was explored by three monks, and in 1866 the prehistoric drawings were noticed. First in 1906 the drawings were dated as prehistoric.

Since then the cave was noted as a protected historical monument. In spite of this protection it is possible to visit the cave in summer and on appointment during the rest of the year.

It is also possible to visit the Grotte de Lombrive. You have to ask for a guide at the town-hall of Ussat-Les-Bains. For cavers it is nearly impossible to do the complete Niaux-Lom- brives-tour. Permission for this tour is seldom given.