Caves and Prehistory

Ariège is steeped in prehistory. The caves at Niaux, Mas d’Azil, La Vache and Bedheilhac are teeming with artifacts: footprints, weapons, hunting tools, jewellery, rock paintings…. All of which put the Ariègeois Pyrenees in first place for prehistory and its art. The Prehistoric Park, the only one in the Pyrenees and Midi-Pyrenees region, immerses you totally into the Ariège as it was in the Magdelenian era. Not to be missed are the reproduction drawings of the Salon Noir in the Niaux cave, which can be seen in their entirety in a superb exhibition. There are workshops which bring the everyday tasks of our ancestors to life: you can learn how to sharpen flint, to light a fire, to paint on rock-faces. There’s also a forest of dinosaurs at Mas d’Azil; a favourite place to explore which is educational as well as lots of fun. The huge geological caves at Lombrives are the biggest you can visit in Europe, and the underground river at Labouiche  is the biggest underground navigable waterway of the continent.