Cap Blanc shelter

Welcome to l'Abri de Cap Blanc

Cap Blanc shelter is located in the commune of Marquay , to the east of Les Eyzies. It is a site managed by the French National Monuments Agency, discovered in 1909 and listed in the world heritage site by UNESCO since 1979.

It's a prehistoric rock shelter from the Magdalenian period: the last phase of the European Upper Paleolithic, between around 17,000 and 12,000 years BC. The shelter is characterized by its huge bas-relief sculpture of various animals, known as a bestiary.

Lined up here are bison, other animals that are sometimes difficult to identify (ibex, bear, reindeer, etc.) and, above all, horses: the central horse is 2.20 m long. The entire bestiary is 13 m long.
The reliefs were executed with a flint pick: the artist hollowed out the limestone using percussive techniques, and the resulting figure appears to "emerge" from the wall.

A female human skeleton was exhumed at the base of the shelter wall. She was lying on her left side in foetal position, with one hand on her face. The body was placed under three stone slabs: today it has been replaced by a facsimile, the original having been in Chicago's field museum since 1926.

A museographic space offers a panorama of the daily life and artistic creation of prehistoric man.

For conservation reasons, the number of visitors admitted each day is very limited and subject to change each day. Online booking is compulsory at www. sites-les-eyzies.fr, with a limit of 30 people per visit to Cap-Blanc.

A guided tour is available on reservation.

The Cap Blanc shelter is located opposite the Château de Commarque