The Villars Cave, in French Grotte de Villars or Grotte du Cluzeau, was occupied during the Lower Magdalenian by Cro-Magnon hunter-gatherers. The cave is part of the French commune of Villars in the northern Dordogne département. Besides its enormous wealth in beautiful stalactites, stalagmites and similar calcite deposits it contains cave paintings and some engravings. The Villars Cave and the Rouffignac Cave are the biggest known cave systems in the Dordogne. Geography and geology The Villars Cave is situated 3.5 kilometres to the northeast of Villars and about 500 metres to the north-northeast of the hamlet Le Cluzeau. It can be accessed via the D 82 from Villars to Saint-Saud-Lacoussière; after a right-turn at Le Cluzeau one crosses the hamlet and reaches the ample parking area on a hill. The entry of the cave is at 170 metres above sea level, somewhat below the parking area along the left-hand slope of the little stream Ruisseau de l'Étang Rompu, a left-hand tributary of the Trincou River. The cave was formed by karstic phenomena affecting the outcropping oolithic limestones of Upper Bajocian (Jurassic) age. On the other side of the valley arrives a southeast-trending fault which most likely disrupted the cohesion of the local strata and triggered the erosional shaping of the similar oriented cave system by carbon dioxide-laden waters during the Quaternary. Discovery The Villars Cave was discovered in December 1953 by members of the Spéléo Club de Périgueux after their attention was drawn to a fox hole exuding steam. They enlarged the hole and thus found the entry to the enormous cave system. In 1956 the first scratch marks of cave bears were noticed along the entry passage. Yet the cave paintings were only recognized later in 1957 by Pierre Vidal, a member of the speleology club. The art work was then investigated and approved of by the expert archeologist Henri Breuil. In 1959 the cave was opened for the first time to the public. Besides Breuil further scientific investigations were carried out in 1958 by André Glory and François Bordes, who were followed in 1959 by André Leroi-Gourhan and by Brigitte and Gilles Delluc in 1970. Description The show cave is about 600 metres long and consists of several rooms connected by passageways. The cave system not open to the public continues on different levels for nearly another 13 kilometres. The Villars Cave is therefore together with the Rouffignac