by Lauren Reynolds

Created on: May 20, 2008

Welcome, these are the beautiful caves of Lascaux. First, we will begin our tour with the Great Hall of the Bulls. This impressive artwork covers the first twenty meters from the entrance, but watch your step while viewing it, there's a steep slope. Notice how the paintings extend on both walls; these are some of the most remarkable in Paleolithic art that have been discovered today. Basically, the fresco is made up of three different animals horses, bulls, and stags. However, you'll see a unicorn-type drawing at the start, fiercely and diligently chasing a herd of horses. This links into a large, partially drawn bull towards the back of the hall. At the center is an outline of a bear, carefully hidden into the dots and lines of black. The color black, as you can see, was in fact a very prominent color when it came to artwork. Especially in this particular piece, only red is also used, and only on seven individual pictures inside the fresco.

Continuing forward, we enter The Painted Gallery. These paintings, unlike before, cover the entire area of the walls. It's especially famous for its series of Chinese Horses, the Great Black Bull, and the Upside-down Horse panel. Take a close look at all the hidden pictures within the larger ones. We'll have to go back towards the Great Hall of Bulls to reach the next section.

Here we divert to another path, the Lateral Passage. This time, watch your head, the ceilings are pretty low. While, at one point in time, this area was completely covered with all sorts of engravings and paintings, few still exist the deterioration. This has happened as a result of corrosion, making it more difficult to interpret the works and also changes their first impact. Nevertheless, you'll still notice the beauty of the few pieces you can make out. Continuing almost straight, we'll enter the Main Gallery. You'll notice to your right there is an opening leading to the Chamber of Engravings, but not to worry, we'll come back to explore that section.

The Main Gallery is unique at first glance, as you'll notice, in the fact that it's made up of a series of five subsequently smaller chambers. And the walls of either side of the path are symmetrical, making its natural beauty stand out from any man made additions. Names to attach to each of these sections are the Panel of the Imprint, the Black Cow Panel, the panel of the Back-to Back Bison, and the "Swimming Stags". Artists took advantage of the surfaces and symmetrical composition, adding distortion

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