Photo : Kvardek du / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Grotte de Bédeilhac
The Bédeilhac cave is in the commune of Bédeilhac-et-Aynat, in the Saurat valley, near Tarascon-sur-Ariège. Its entrance, at 690 m altitude, opens through a porch 40 m wide on the flank of the Sedour massif. The cavity runs 750 m into the mountain and reaches 2,240 m of development, with in places a vault 80 m high. Frequented for at least 15,000 years, it is a decorated cave of the Magdalenian period: there are bison, hands, engravings and clay modelling. It has been listed as a historic monument since 1929.
Its recent history is also singular: requisitioned in 1940 by the Dewoitine aircraft factory, then occupied by the Germans in 1944 to repair aeroplanes, it has kept workshops, machine tools and aircraft carcasses. In 1972, a pilot even landed a light aircraft there. The cave belongs to the commune and can be visited.
