# Cosquer Cave (Cosquer Méditerranée), Marseille > Cosquer Cave is a cave of Stone Age art in the Calanques whose entrance lies 37 metres under the sea. The diver Henri Cosquer found it in 1985, and inside were around 500 images up to 27,000 years old: hand stencils, horses, bison and rare sea creatures such as seals and great auks. The real cave can't be visited, but in 2022 an exact replica, Cosquer Méditerranée, opened in Marseille's port. Allow 1.5–2 hours. Web page: https://yesgo.io/france/marseille/cosquer-mediterranee - City: [Marseille](https://yesgo.io/france/marseille), France - YesGo score: 37/100 (Yes, if nearby) - Time on site: 1 h 45 min - With kids: Fine with kids - Entry: Timed ticket, best online - Hours: Daily by day - Opened: 2022 - Images: ≈ 500 - Duration: ≈ 1.5–2 hours - Location: Marseille port, next to MuCEM - Coordinates: 43.29720, 5.36060 - Facts checked: 12.11.2026 ## Key facts - **37 m** — depth of the real cave's entrance (source: English Wikipedia) - **27,000** — years old, the oldest images (source: English Wikipedia) - **177** — animal images (source: English Wikipedia) - **65** — hand stencils (source: English Wikipedia) ## About Cosquer Cave Cosquer Cave lies in the **Calanque de Morgiou** in the Calanques massif, on Marseille's southern edge. In the Ice Age the sea was a hundred metres lower and the shore several kilometres further south, so people walked into the cave. Then the sea rose, and today the entrance is hidden **37 metres** down, with a 175-metre underwater tunnel leading to the dry chambers. The entrance was found in **1985** by **Henri Cosquer**, a diver from Cassis, but the paintings were only discovered in 1991, when explorers spotted a handprint on the wall. Leading specialists in prehistoric art, Jean Clottes and Jean Courtin, studied the cave. Today it's closed, and its paintings can be seen in an exact replica. ## What to see - **Hand stencils** — 65 'handprints' 27,000 years old. - **Horses and bison** — the animals of Ice Age Europe. - **Seals and great auks** — rare sea subjects. - **The underground lake** — flooded chambers in the replica. - **The climate gallery** — how the sea drowned the coast. - **Port views** — from the museum at the harbour mouth. ## Stone Age paintings Four-fifths of the cave is flooded and the art there has gone, but the dry chambers hold around **500 images** from two periods. The oldest, about **27,000 years** old, are 65 hand stencils in black and red: people pressed a hand to the wall and blew pigment around it. The later images, about 19,000 years old, show **177 animals**: horses, ibex, deer, bison and aurochs. But Cosquer's great speciality is **sea creatures**, almost absent from other caves: seals, great auks, jellyfish and fish. There are human figures too, including a motif known from Lascaux. > **Before you go** Tickets are for a **set time**, so buy them online ahead, especially in summer and on rainy days when the museum fills up. The tour of the replica cave runs in small groups and takes about an hour, after which you can explore the exhibition on climate and the history of the Mediterranean at your own pace. ## The Cosquer Méditerranée replica In **2022** the **Cosquer Méditerranée** museum opened in Marseille's port, in the **Villa Méditerranée** building at the harbour mouth: a life-size replica of the cave. The paintings, vaults and chambers were recreated from precise 3D scans, and part of the 'flooded' cave is shown with water, as in reality. After the cave, visitors pass through an exhibition on Ice Age life, the animals that lived on the shores of Provence and how the rising sea reshaped the coast. It includes models of Ice Age animals. ## The cave and the Calanques The real cave is in **Calanques National Park**, near Cap Morgiou. Its entrance is closely protected and diving there is banned: it's dangerous and could damage the art. From a boat running along the Calanques from the Old Port, you can see the cliffs of Cap Morgiou that hide the entrance. Cosquer Cave is one of the very few places on the Mediterranean coast with art this ancient, and it shows how much the shoreline has changed over the last twenty thousand years. ## How to get there 1. Tram T2 to Joliette or République-Dames, then a 10-minute walk. 2. From the Old Port, 15 minutes on foot along the sea past MuCEM. 3. Metro M2 to Joliette, then walk to the sea. 4. The entrance is on the esplanade beside MuCEM. ## Tips for your visit Allow an hour and a half to two hours for the museum. It's a good choice on a rainy or windy day when boats to the Calanques aren't running. The museum pairs easily with [La Major cathedral](https://yesgo.io/france/marseille/marseille-cathedral) and a walk to the [Old Port](https://yesgo.io/france/marseille/vieux-port), and you can see the coves themselves on a boat to the [Calanques](https://yesgo.io/france/marseille/calanques). The museum is pushchair-accessible. Children enjoy the cave tour, but it's dark and hushed inside, so warn little ones beforehand. ## Before you go Tick off what's ready — your ticks are saved in this browser. - [ ] Buy a timed ticket online - [ ] Find the hand stencils - [ ] Spot the seals and great auks - [ ] See the climate exhibition - [ ] Walk on to MuCEM afterwards ## Places in Marseille: compare and choose Places in Marseille rated by YesGo. - [Cosquer Cave](https://yesgo.io/france/marseille/cosquer-mediterranee) — YesGo score 37/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 45 min · Timed ticket ## Don't mix it up Cosquer Méditerranée is the replica museum in Marseille's port; the real Cosquer Cave is under the sea off Cap Morgiou and closed to visitors. ## Tips - Timed ticket, online. - Good for rain and wind. - The real cave is closed. - MuCEM is next door. ## Questions ### Can you visit the real Cosquer Cave? No, it's underwater and closed; an exact replica is open in Marseille. ### Where is Cosquer Méditerranée? In Marseille's port, next to MuCEM and La Major cathedral. ### How old are the Cosquer Cave paintings? Between 19,000 and 27,000 years old. ### How long do I need at the museum? About an hour and a half to two hours. ### What's special about Cosquer Cave? Rare images of sea creatures, seals and great auks. ## How we checked Facts from English Wikipedia. Prices, hours and the visit format weren't confirmed with an official source — hence the 'checking' badge. ## Sources - English Wikipedia: Cosquer Cave - Museum website, cosquer.com --- This is the Markdown version of a YesGo page for AI assistants. Quote the web page link above, not this file.