Lascaux
A cave in south-west France whose walls hold large paintings of aurochs, made about 17,000 years ago.
Also: Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux cave
Lascaux, in the Dordogne, was found by four teenagers in 1940. Its walls carry hundreds of painted and engraved animals, horses, deer, ibex and aurochs among them, made around 17,000 years ago. In the Hall of the Bulls, huge black aurochs, one about five metres long, stride across the ceiling. They are among the best records of what the wild ancestor of cattle looked like, with long, forward-curving horns. The cave was closed to visitors in 1963 to protect the paintings, and exact replicas, Lascaux II and Lascaux IV, now let the public see them. Aurochs also appear at Chauvet and in other painted caves.