Grotte du Mas-d'Azil

Le Mas-d'Azil

The Arize has pierced the mountain right through, and the result is a cathedral of stone: a porch fifty-one metres high and forty-eight wide, a natural tunnel four hundred and twenty metres long, two thousand one hundred metres of galleries. The departmental road passes through it for four hundred and ten metres — it is one of the very few caves in Europe that can be driven through by car. Beneath these vaults, prehistory has left some of its most famous pieces: the spear-thrower known as the 'faon aux oiseaux' (fawn with birds), carved from reindeer antler some fifteen thousand years ago, the skull known as 'Magda', fourteen thousand years old, and above all the pebbles painted with red ochre, stones marked with dots and bars that no one can say for certain count, name or pray. It is here that Édouard Piette defined the Azilian, that transitional culture between the Magdalenian and the Mesolithic, which covers roughly twelve thousand to nine thousand five hundred years before our time. The grotto served as a refuge much later too: for Protestants in the 17th century, and perhaps for Cathars in the 13th — but this latter tradition, though widespread in the region, rests on no firm evidence, and that must be said.

Grotte du Mas-d'Azil — Wikipedia ↗

Getting there : The D119 runs through the grotto: it is one of the very few caves in Europe that can be driven through by car. A Museum of Prehistory is housed in the village of Le Mas-d'Azil; a visit to the grotto can be combined with the museum. The site lies within the Pyrénées Ariégeoises regional nature park. Approximate coordinates, to be checked on site.

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

Ambient sound