Grotte du Lazaret

The Grotte du Lazaret is an archaeological cave on the eastern slope of Mont Boron above the bay of Nice, used by Neanderthals as a hunting camp between 200,000 and 130,000 years ago. Excavations since the 1950s have produced tens of thousands of stone tools, bones of deer, aurochs and ibex, and fragments of human remains, making it one of the most important Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Mediterranean. The reconstructed hut structure inside the cave is among the oldest documented dwellings in Europe. The cave was classified Monument Historique in 1963 and is only opened occasionally, usually for scientific tours; many of the finds are displayed at the Musee de Prehistoire Terra Amata in Nice.