Cave of Niaux, Niaux, France - SpottingHistory.com

The Cave of Niaux contains many prehistoric paintings of superior quality from the Magdalenian period. It is one of the most famous decorated prehistoric caves in Europe still open to the public. The paintings had been emerging on the cave walls during a long period between 11500 and 10500 years BC. From the very beginning of the seventeenth century the cave was of great interest for tourists, who left numerous traces on its walls.

Though its vast opening (55 metres high) which opens at an altitude of 678 metres, the Niaux cave extends for more than 2 kilometres. The guided tour of the Salon Noir, 800 metres from the entrance, will reveal to you more than 70 exceptional prehistoric paintings.

User Reviews

Ana Lages (19 months ago)
Amazing experience! Truly! Highly recommended to all that loves history and to discover places like this, where men left his mark for thousands and thousands of years! The drawings are simple Amazing...

Andy Kegel (2 years ago)
incredible. The tour is well organized - bring good shoes and prepare to walk on slippery rock. 10000, 20000, perhaps even 30000 years ago, people walked a kilometer into a dark cave to paint on the walls using light from lamps burning animal fat. And these aren't just my type of scribbles, but actual genius art. You must go to find out how capable our ancestors were. This is one of the few places where you can see the actual art and not just reproductions.

Lorraine Tilbury (2 years ago)
Amazing. One of the last remaining caves where you're able to visit the ORIGINAL Neolithic paintings, NOT a copy. Continuous measurement of carbon dioxide emissions & the limiting of human presence to 45 mn max guarantees the preservation of this precious relic.

Peter Vaughan (2 years ago)
This would not normally be my kind of thing, but it was incredible. The cave hasn't been overly disturbed since it was painted around 13,000 - 15,000 years ago! It's not been sanitised, it's only been made safe for us to visit (be ready for some tight passages and steep steps) and to keep the paintings safe from us. I would really highly recommend it.

Chiara Benini (2 years ago)
The most beautiful cave I've p ever seen, dripping with an atmosphere of misteriousness and resembling a place out of a fantasy book. For those scared of the dark and of tight places, prepare yourself for a thrilling adventure.

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Photo from Flickr, copyright Dan Lundberg

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Hagios Demetrios

The Church of Saint Demetrius, or Hagios Demetrios, is the main sanctuary dedicated to Saint Demetrius, the patron saint of Thessaloniki. It is part of the site Palaeochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessaloniki on the list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO since 1988.

The first church on the spot was constructed in the early 4th century AD, replacing a Roman bath. A century later, a prefect named Leontios replaced the small oratory with a larger, three-aisled basilica. Repeatedly gutted by fires, the church eventually was reconstructed as a five-aisled basilica in 629–634. This was the surviving form of the church much as it is today. The most important shrine in the city, it was probably larger than the local cathedral. The historic location of the latter is now unknown.

The church had an unusual shrine called the ciborium, a hexagonal, roofed structure at one side of the nave. It was made of or covered with silver. The structure had doors and inside was a couch or bed. Unusually, it did not hold any physical relics of the saint. The ciborium seems to have been a symbolic tomb. It was rebuilt at least once.

The basilica is famous for six extant mosaic panels, dated to the period between the latest reconstruction and the inauguration of the Byzantine Iconoclasm in 730. These mosaics depict St. Demetrius with officials responsible for the restoration of the church (called the founders, ktetors) and with children. An inscription below one of the images glorifies heaven for saving the people of Thessalonica from a pagan Slavic raid in 615.

Thessaloniki became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1430. About 60 years later, during the reign of Bayezid II, the church was converted into a mosque, known as the Kasımiye Camii after the local Ottoman mayor, Cezeri Kasım Pasha. The symbolic tomb however was kept open for Christian veneration. Other magnificent mosaics, recorded as covering the church interior, were lost either during the four centuries when it functioned as a mosque (1493–1912) or in the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 that destroyed much of the city. It also destroyed the roof and upper walls of the church. Black-and-white photographs and good watercolour versions give an idea of the early Byzantine craftsmanship lost during the fire.

Following the Great Fire of 1917, it took decades to restore the church. Tombstones from the city"s Jewish cemetery - destroyed by the Greek and Nazi German authorities - were used as building materials in these restoration efforts in the 1940s. Archeological excavations conducted in the 1930s and 1940s revealed interesting artifacts that may be seen in a museum situated inside the church"s crypt. The excavations also uncovered the ruins of a Roman bath, where St. Demetrius was said to have been held prisoner and executed. A Roman well was also discovered. Scholars believe this is where soldiers dropped the body of St. Demetrius after his execution. After restoration, the church was reconsecrated in 1949.

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