Grotte du Sorcier
France · Europe · ✦ UNESCO World Heritage Site
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A rare engraved human figure — the 'Sorcerer' — in a pocket-sized Vézère cave
A small cave above the Vézère valley whose walls carry deep engravings and low reliefs of horses, bison and ibex alongside geometric signs — around twenty-eight representations recorded in a gallery about 13 m long. Its celebrity is the 'Sorcerer', an unusually complete engraved human figure that gave the cave its name. Run for decades as a private visitor site, it closed to the public in 2024 and was bought by the French state.
Age
~15,000–17,000 yrs
Period
Magdalenian
Setting
Cave
Art form
Petroglyphs
Discovered
1952
Status
Closed (Since 2024)
Gallery
The art
Notable Features
- ◦ The 'Sorcerer' human figure
- ◦ Deeply engraved horses and bison
- ◦ Ibex and geometric signs
Depicted Subjects
Human FiguresHuman FacesHorsesBisonIbexGeometric Signs
How it was made
Deep incisionBas-relief carvingFine-line engraving
How we know its age
Rock art carries no signature and no date. These are the methods that put an age on this site. How these methods work →
Plan a Visit
AccessClosed to the public.
Links
Hours & prices change — always confirm on the official site before travelling.
Sources
- 1.Grotte de Saint-Cirq — Wikipedia
- 2.Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley — UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- 3.L'art pariétal de la grotte du Roc Saint-Cirq — British Archaeological Reports
- 4.La grotte ornée de Saint-Cirq (Dordogne) — Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française
Further reading
- La Grotte du Sorcier — Don's Maps
Where to go next
Same subject · Bison
Same era · The Magdalenian
Same art form · Petroglyphs
Photographs via Wikimedia Commons — image credits. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.