<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Location in the Dordogne Location in the Dordogne Show map of Dordogne Show map of France Show all </Td> </Tr> <P> Lascaux (French: Grotte de Lascaux, "Lascaux Cave"; English: / læsˈkoʊ /, French: (lasko)) is the setting of a complex of caves near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne in southwestern France . Over 600 parietal wall paintings decorate the interior walls and ceilings of the cave . The paintings are primarily of large animals, typical local and contemporary fauna that correspond with the fossil record of the Upper Paleolithic time . The drawings are the combined effort of many generations, and with continued debate, the paintings are estimated around 17,000 years BP . Lascaux was inducted into the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list in 1979, as element of the Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley . </P> <P> On September 12, 1940, the entrance to the Lascaux Cave was discovered by 18 year old Marcel Ravidat . Ravidat (died in 1995) returned to the scene with three friends, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel, and Simon Coencas, and entered the cave via a long shaft . The teenagers discovered that the cave walls were covered with depictions of animals . Galleries that suggest continuity, context or simply represent a cavern were given names . Those include the Hall of the Bulls, the Passageway, the Shaft, the Nave, the Apse, and the Chamber of Felines . The cave complex was opened to the public on July 14, 1948 . By 1955, carbon dioxide, heat, humidity, and other contaminants produced by 1,200 visitors per day had visibly damaged the paintings . As air condition deteriorated fungi and lichen increasingly infested the walls . Consequently, the cave was closed to the public in 1963, the paintings were restored to their original state and a monitoring system on a daily basis was introduced . </P> <P> Lascaux II, an exact copy of the Great Hall of the Bulls and the Painted Gallery opened in 1983 in the cave's vicinity, a compromise and attempt to present an impression of the paintings' scale and composition for the public without harming the originals . A full range of Lascaux's parietal art is presented a few kilometres from the site at the Centre of Prehistoric Art, Le Parc du Thot, where there are also live animals representing ice - age fauna . </P>

When were the lascaux caves closed to the public