in the Ardèche department in the southeastern France, is a cave that contains some of the world’s best-preserved figurative rock paintings, as well as other evidence of life in the Upper Paleolithic. It is located near the commune of Vallon-Pont-d’Arc in a limestone cliff over the old river Ardèche, in the Gargantas del Ardèche.

Discovered in 1994, it is considered one of the most significant of prehistoric art. The cave is also a reference for the quality of rock art conservation and site management. In 2014 UNESCO chose the Chauvet Cave as a World Heritage Site. 5

The cave was explored for the first time on December 18, 1994 by a trio of speleologists: Éliette Brunel-Deschamps, Christian Hillaire and Jean-Marie Chauvet, from whom she took the name. 6 In addition to paintings and other tests of human activity they also discovered fossilized remains, footprints and marks of a variety of animals, some of which have become extinct. Additional study by French archaeologist Jean Clottes has revealed much about the site, although the dating has sparked some controversy.