Photo : Traumrune / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Grotte du Mas-d'Azil
The Mas-d'Azil cave, in the Ariège, was carved by the Arize river in the Plantaurel range. Part of the cavity forms a natural tunnel about 420 m long, which departmental road 119 uses alongside the watercourse. The south entrance, the Arize porch, is about 51 m high by 48 m wide, and the total development reaches 2,100 m.
The place first sheltered animals, mammoths, cave bears and woolly rhinoceroses, then human groups of the Aurignacian, Magdalenian, Azilian and Neolithic. The Azilian, a culture of the end of prehistory dated to about 12,000 to 9,500 years before the present, takes its name from the site; it was defined by Édouard Piette, who explored the Théâtre hall from 1887. Pebbles painted in red ochre, about 10,000 years old, characterise it. The prehistory museum, in the village, completes the visit.
