There are more prehistoric caves around Les Eyzies than you could possibly hope to visit in one day. Besides, the compulsory guided tours are tiring, so it's best to select just a couple.

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No one ever lived in these caves, and there are various theories as to why such inaccessible spots were chosen. Most agree that the caves were sanctuaries and, if not actually places of worship, they at least had religious significance. One theory is that making images of animals that were commonly hunted - like reindeer and bison - or feared - like bears and mammoths - was a kind of sympathetic magic intended to help men either catch or evade these animals. Another is that they were part of a fertility cult: sexual images of women with pendulous breasts and protuberant rumps are common, and it seems, too, that certain animals were associated with the feminine principle. Others argue that these cave paintings served educational purposes, making parallels with Australian aborigines who used similar images to teach their young vital survival information as well as the history and mythological origins of their people. But much remains unexplained - for instance, the abstract signs that appear in many caves and the arrows which clearly cannot be arrows, because Stone Age arrowheads looked different from these representations

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