A cave with a thousand horses

At first, your eyes can see very little. Somehow, you feel you are in a special place; a cave, but a different one. You feel the humid air, and little by little, you start noticing the amazing walls around you, and the path in front of you. You start walking, and as your eyes get used to the darkness, you see more and more. You see the high ceiling of the cave, the natural floors in it, the shapes in the walls. You make a stop and stare at the walls. Suddenly, they are in front of you: the drawings. At first, one shape of a bison. Then, another one next to it. And you realize you have walked 100 meters surrounded by bisons, horses, and reindeers, and that there are much more above you, in places your eye can’t reach, and that they have been here for 14000 years. And it hits you. You are in Font de Gaume, the only cave with polychromatic prehistoric paintings still open to the public, in the region of Dordogne, in southwest France. You are one of the few privileged persons to be able to be here today; only 80 enter each day, and rumor says it won’t be for long. You know it, so you want to take the most of it. Your eyes browse through the walls looking for more mysteries, more animals, more human shapes, more signs of how we were here and we were the same long before we even started to write. You don’t get any explanations; you just enjoy the shapes, drawn in harmony with the natural forms of the cave, which has also been here for a much longer time. The paintings are beautiful. You imagine the horses riding as the flame of the fire illuminates them. You enjoy them in silence, even though a thousands questions arise. The time of the visit is over. As you walk your way out, as slowly as possible to enjoy this place on Earth for the last time, you try to see the paintings one last time. You don’t see one. They have disappeared again, swallowed by the darkness of the cave. You get out of the cave; the sunlight blinds you for a minute. You try to take a last glance inside, but the door is already closed. You probably won’t see the paintings again. At least, you get comfort in the idea that they will stay there forever. And so will their mysteries.