Aven d'Orgnac

Orgnac-l'Aven

On 19 August 1935, the speleologist Robert de Joly descended with four companions into what local people called 'l'aven des Bertras'. After ten hours of exploring on the end of ropes, the team reached the Red Chambers and revealed one of the largest underground networks in France, remarkable for the scale of its volumes and the variety of its formations. The town council voted a budget of 1,200 francs as early as 9 February 1936 to develop the site; work on an access tunnel, internal pathways and electric lighting began in the autumn of 1938. The official opening took place on 11 July 1939 in the presence of the Minister of Agriculture; by August, 14,379 visitors were already crowding into the cave. A reception pavilion opened in 1948, a lift was installed in 1965, the year in which explorations revealed the Orgnac II, III and IV sinkholes, multiplying the known extent of the network fivefold. The threshold of 100,000 visitors a year was crossed in 1966. Nearby, the archaeological site of Orgnac III has yielded one of the oldest known lithic industries using the Levallois technique, dated to the late Acheulean. Designated a Grand Site de France in the 1990s, the sinkhole can today be explored along the GR 4B, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

Getting there : 2.3 km north-west of Orgnac-l'Aven (Ardèche), on the D176/D217 road, on the route of the GR 4B linking the Atlantic to the Mediterranean; guided tour compulsory, lift in service since 1965

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound