Heritage with Related Tags
Decorated Cave of Pont d’Arc, known as Grotte Chauvet-Pont d’Arc, Ardèche
Located on a limestone plateau in the Ardèche River in southern France, the site is an outstanding testimony to prehistoric art and contains the earliest known and best-preserved figurative paintings in the world, dating back to the Aurignacian period (30,000-32,000 years ago). The cave was sealed by a rockfall about 20,000 years ago and remained in its pristine state until it was discovered in 1994. To date, more than 1,000 paintings have been found on the cave walls, incorporating a variety of anthropomorphic and animal motifs. The paintings have an extraordinary aesthetic quality, demonstrating a range of techniques, including the clever use of shading, the combination of painting and engraving, anatomical accuracy, three-dimensionality and movement. They include several dangerous animal species that were difficult to observe at the time, such as mammoths, bears, cave lions, rhinos, bison and aurochs, as well as 4,000 recorded prehistoric animal remains and various human footprints.
Sacred City of Kandy
This Buddhist holy site, popularly known as Senkadagarapura, was the last capital of the Sinhalese kings, whose patronage allowed the Dinahara culture to flourish for more than 2,500 years until the British occupied Sri Lanka in 1815. It is also home to the Temple of the Tooth (the sacred tooth of the Buddha), a famous pilgrimage site.