![]() In his Cosmographie universelle he cites “paintings and animal traces”. The Rouffignac cave was mentioned in 1575 by François de Belleforest. Today this process has come to an end, and the cave is mostly dry except for the rivulet along the base level. Water had infiltrated the bedrock along certain zones of weakness and dissolved the limestone. Presumably the cave was formed during the Pliocene about 3 to 2 million years ago. ![]() The plan of the cave reveals a fractal-like dendritic pattern that is not random but organized along certain preferred directions. Visitors of the cave board an electric train that takes them about 2 km (1.2 mi) into the interior. Below the deeper level exists a bottom level with a small underground rivulet. So far, a further 4 km (2.5 mi) of passageways have been explored in this deeper level. There are 10 natural shafts that lead to a deeper level. The Rouffignac cave and the Villars Cave possess the most extensive cave system of the Périgord, with more than 8 km (5.0 mi) of underground passageways. These rocks together with overlying Santonian rocks form the limestone plateau of Légal, the divide between the drainage basins of the rivers Lisle and Vézère. The rocks of the cave are flat-lying limestones belonging to the uppermost Coniacian they are very rich in flint nodules. Perched only about one kilometer farther east on the opposite side of the valley is the little village of Fleurac. The Cave of the hundred mammoths, also known as Miremont cave, Cro des Cluzeau or Cro de Granville, is about 5 km (3.1 mi) south of Rouffignac on a hill slope along the right-hand side of the La Binche river, a left tributary of the Manaurie. In conjunction with other caves and abris of the Vézère valley, the Rouffignac cave was classified a Monument historique in 1957 and a World Heritage Site in 1979 by UNESCO as part of the Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley. The Rouffignac cave, in the French commune of Rouffignac-Saint-Cernin-de-Reilhac in the Dordogne département, contains over 250 engravings and cave paintings dating back to the Upper Paleolithic. ![]() Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley
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