Cosquer cave
The Grotte Cosquer is an underwater cave, the only one of its kind in the world, in the Calanques near Marseille, at Cap Morgiou. Alongside the usual terrestrial animals found in cave art, the drawings and engravings also depict auks, seals, fish and various signs that may represent jellyfish or octopi.
The Grotte Cosquer is located in the Calanques, near Marseille, at the Cap Morgiou. The cave is accessed through a 150-metre long tunnel. The entrance lies at a depth of 35 metres. The only one of its kind in the world, this underwater cave is decorated with several dozen painted and engraved works dating from approximately 33,000 to 19,000 years ago.
Depictions of terrestrial animals
Decorated with various terrestrial animals, it also features seals and auks, 55 negative hands and extensive finger fluting, dozens of geometric signs and an exceptional engraving of a “killed man". The Grotte Cosquer contains depictions of a wide range of terrestrial animals. Each animal has been meticulously identified based on a delicate reading of the palaeolithic message that has faded over time, destroyed by nature and sometimes deformed as soon as it was created. On the wet walls there are horses, bisons and aurochs, ibexes and chamois, various cervids, a feline and unidentified animals. There are 142 animals in total.
Hands
A moving testimony to the lives of people living in the Palaeolithic age, more than fifty-five hands have been discovered in the cave. They are drawn in negative, like a stencil, and in positive, where the hand is covered in a colourant and placed on the rockface. They are all found in the right (eastern) part of the cave, and seem to mark out a route to the great shaft, now filled with water but formerly a 24-metre-deep abyss that must have frightened the first visitors to the cave 33,000 years ago.
To conserve this exceptional site, but also for security reasons, it is closed to the public.
2022: A space devoted to the Grotte Cosquer in Marseille
Visitors can admire an accurate reconstruction of the Grotte Cosquer on board exploration modules (small self-driving vehicles), in an interpretation centre that guides visitors through the cave, its art and unique archaeological and environmental context, including the issue of rising sea levels. In the large auditorium, a film recounts the history of its discovery.
Useful links
- The Grotte Cosquer in images (DRAC website)