Cosque Cave Essay -- Place Essays

Cosque Cave Many, many years ago, a cave was in use, and many paintings, drawings, and engravings were put on the walls of the cave. About ten years ago, a man was diving in the Mediterranean and came across something that no one would ever think about finding. It was a prehistoric painted cave with an underwater entrance. It is known today as the Cosquer cave. Jean Cosquer, a professional diver, discovered the cave. He was diving for no particular reason, and found a wealth of prehistoric art in the cave. He made this discovery in July 1991, and ever since more and more research is being done on the Cosquer cave. It is firmly dated one of the Paleolithic painted caves in the world. The entrance to this cave is thirty-seven meters under sea level in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located by Cape Morgiou, in the Calanques, about twelve kilometers southeast of Marseilles. It is possible to enter the cave by slithering through water on the stomach through a one hundred and seventy five meter tunnel, after diving to the entrance. Though access to the Cosquer cave is now difficult because of the rise in the sea level when Ice Age glaciers thawed, they’re still thinking that the cave has never had an easy entrance. It is thought that the cave was probably ten kilometers from the coast during the Magdalenian period. The rise in the sea level-over one hundred meters by the end of the Ice Age-covered its normal entrance. This is why there hasn’t been any environmental damage to the Cosquer cave (Davis). The cave is open to researchers. There are researchers down there finding out more and more information. Jean Courtin mainly leads the research on the cave, along wi... ...there in. The Cosquer cave is also a very unique cave. It is unique because of its entrance from underwater and because of the various markings on the cave walls. There are still many unanswered questions about Cosquer cave, but since its discovery in 1991 researchers have made huge progress in answering the questions. There is a controversy over the entrance of the cave. Some people want to drill an opening for an entrance to the cave. Others want the cave to remain as it was found. As of now, the cave is remaining, as it was when it was found. There is still a way to enter the cave; it is just not as convenient as many would like it to be. Researchers are still the only ones who are allowed in the cave, so there won’t be a change in the entrance of the cave until the research is finished and people are allowed to enter the cave on their own.