A special place in the story of prehistory
Les Combarelles holds a special place in the history of prehistory. Its discovery in 1901 by Louis Capitan, Henri Breuil and Denis Peyrony helped establish the authenticity of cave art, which was still disputed after the Altamira controversy.
A narrow gallery covered in engravings
The cave, at Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, is not a vast cavity but a narrow, winding corridor several hundred metres long. Its walls carry between six hundred and eight hundred Magdalenian engravings, about 13,000 years old. The art is almost exclusively engraved, and the lines overlap and intertwine, following the relief of the rock, so it takes a careful eye to untangle them.
The horse in majesty
The bestiary is exceptionally rich. The horse dominates, with more than a hundred depictions, joined by bison, reindeer, ibex, mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, bears and lions. There are also some fifty schematic human figures and enigmatic signs, including tectiforms. The whole, the work of Magdalenian Homo sapiens, is a compendium of the graphic repertoire of the period.
Why it matters
Unlike the great painted halls, Combarelles asks you to slow down. You walk a long gallery, listen to your guide and let the eye pick out horses, reindeer and human profiles from a dense web of lines. The gallery is a sister to Font-de-Gaume, where the paintings were found in the same week of 1901, and together they helped make Les Eyzies the world capital of prehistory.
Planning your visit
Groups are very small and booking is essential: the narrowness of the corridor and the fragility of the walls demand it. The visit is guided only, with a limited daily capacity, for ages 7 and over. Booking is shared with Font-de-Gaume (Centre des monuments nationaux), so you can plan both caves together. The cave is part of the Prehistoric Sites of the Vézère Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage property. See also the Vézère valley weekend and the guide to painted caves.
Practical information was checked in October 2026: please confirm opening times and book on the official website before your visit.