On the 12th of September 1940 near the village of Montignac on the banks of the Vezere River four French teenagers were out walking their dog Robot when their trusty pet mysteriously disappeared.

While searching for Robot the boys discovered that he had fallen down a hole in the ground at the base of a fallen tree, as it was getting late and not knowing how deep the hole was or into what it led the boys decided it would be safer to return the next day with a rope to rescue their dog.

The following morning they bravely lowered themselves in to the hole and discovered what is now known as the Hall of the Bulls part of the famous caves of Lascaux. The vast walls of the cave were adorned with exquisite and colourful artwork painted by early man some 16 - 17 thousand years ago.

The caves were formed in the Tertiary period millions of years ago by the action of water slowly filtering through cracks in the limestone rock that makes up the caves. The main cave called the Hall of the Bulls that the boys first discovered contains as its name suggests huge cave paintings of prehistoric bulls some more than 5 metres long as well as herds of deer and horses, amidst the paintings of animals are the occasional stick like figures of men with spears.

News of the boy's discovery soon spread and by the 1950's the constant flow of tourists visiting the caves sadly began to take its toll and scientist discovered that carbon dioxide from visitors breath was damaging the cave paintings and sadly the only solution was to close the Lascaux caves to the public.

But as the caves were such a national treasure an amazing life size replica of Lascaux was built at nearby Montignac and most of the original paintings recreated.

The replica is open each day during the summer with guided tours lasting around 40 minutes, out of season the center is closed on Mondays and is closed from January to early February.

For more information visit the Lascaux website.