Vallée des Merveilles

The Vallee des Merveilles in the Mercantour National Park of southern France contains over 35,000 Bronze Age rock engravings spread across 40 square kilometres, making it Europe's largest open-air petroglyph collection after Val Camonica. Located on the slopes of Mont Bego in the Maritime Alps, the carvings depict cattle, weapons, anthropomorphic figures, and geometric patterns dating from approximately 3300 to 1200 BC. Systematic study began in 1967 under archaeologist Henry de Lumley, who theorised the engravings were created by a Mediterranean people who revered the bull and considered Mont Bego sacred.