Marcel Ravidat was 18 years old when his dog Robot disappeared down a hole beneath an uprooted tree. Marcel and three friends widened the opening and dropped into the darkness. Their lamps revealed paintings on the walls - horses, bulls, deer - in colors still vivid after millennia.

The boys told their schoolmaster, who contacted experts. Within days, the cave's importance was clear: this was Paleolithic art of unprecedented quality and quantity. The Abbé Henri Breuil, the foremost prehistorian of the era, called it 'the Sistine Chapel of Prehistory.' The name stuck.

Lascaux contains nearly 600 paintings and 1,500 engravings across several chambers. The Hall of the Bulls features four massive black bulls, the largest over 17 feet long. The Axial Gallery shows horses, deer, and a strange 'Chinese horse.' The Shaft depicts a man and a wounded bison - one of prehistory's few narrative scenes.

The artists used natural rock contours to give figures three-dimensionality. They blew pigment through bone tubes, creating soft edges. They outlined figures in black and filled them with reds and yellows. The sophistication astounds modern artists - these weren't primitive scratches but fully realized works.

Why did prehistoric people create this art? The cave was never inhabited - it was too difficult to access. The paintings may have had religious significance, perhaps connected to hunting magic or shamanic rituals. Some researchers see astronomical symbolism in the arrangements.

The artists themselves remain enigmatic. They were anatomically modern humans, genetically identical to us, living during the Ice Age. They hunted mammoth and reindeer. They made tools and clothing. And they created art of such quality that it wouldn't be surpassed for thousands of years. Lascaux proves that artistic genius is as old as humanity.

Lascaux opened to the public in 1948. Within years, over 1,000 visitors daily were breathing carbon dioxide and tracking in microorganisms. By 1955, green algae were appearing on the paintings. By 1960, white calcite deposits were forming. The cave was dying.

In 1963, André Malraux, France's Minister of Cultural Affairs, ordered Lascaux closed permanently. Only scientists with special permission can enter now, and visits are strictly limited. The cave that survived 17,000 years nearly succumbed to 15 years of tourism.

In 1983, Lascaux II opened - a meticulous replica of the main chambers, built using the same techniques as the original artists. Visitors can experience the Hall of the Bulls and the Axial Gallery in precise facsimile. The replica draws 250,000 visitors annually.

Lascaux IV, opened in 2016, offers a more complete reproduction with modern interpretation centers. The replicas are remarkable achievements in their own right - proof that Lascaux's power transcends the original. But the real cave waits in darkness, sealed and monitored, its paintings slowly fading despite all efforts. Some treasures cannot survive being found.