And the early work preparing the site for visitors had also disturbed its environment more than the authorities anticipated.Cave Paintings are paintings on cave walls and ceilings, usually dating to prehistoric times.The earliest known European cave paintings date to 32,000 years ago.Join us to discover the top twenty most fascinating prehistoric cave paintings.

Those include the Hall of the Bulls, the Passageway, the Shaft, the Nave, the Apse, and the Chamber of Felines. By 1955, carbon dioxide, heat, humidity, and other contaminants produced by 1,200 visitors per day had visibly damaged the paintings.

The fact that these cave paintings were executed so skilfully yet so deep within prehistory has forced us to abandon the prevailing view that 'early art was naive art'.

Not only is the Ice Age art of the Chauvet Cave extremely old, it is also very extensive and highly varied.

Helene Valladas of the Laboratory for Climate and Environment Studies at France's CEA-CNRS research centre at Gif-sur-Yvette performed the analysis on the paintings concluding that the drawings were between 29,700 and 32,400 years old.

The Chauvet Cave is one of the most famous prehistoric rock art sites in the world.