Ensemble de grottes à concrétions du Sud de la France
Ensemble de grottes à concrétions du Sud de la France is part of the Tentative list of France in order to qualify for inclusion in the World Heritage List.
The Ensemble de grottes à concrétions du Sud de la France is a serial property of 18 caves and cave groups in the Pyrenees, the Massif Central and the Alps. The caves are characterized by the presence of speleothems in a variety of morphologies and crystal forms, stalactites and stalagmites are the best known of them. Among the caves, the Aven d'Orgnac and the Aven Armand (located within the WHS Causses and Cévennes) are the best known.
Map of Ensemble de grottes à concrétions du Sud de la France
Load mapThe coordinates shown for all tentative sites were produced as a community effort. They are not official and may change on inscription.
Community Reviews
Ralf Regele
On the way towards the Mont Perdu WHS from the french side, I made a visit to the "Gouffre D'Esparros" cave, which is part of the obscure TWHS "Ensemble de grottes a concretions du Sud de la France". The cave is a bit in the middle of nowhere. However, the GPS should find it, the roads are fine and the infrastructure for the visit is actually pretty good. Despite visiting on a long weekend with nice weather, I was the only visitor for the early tour, so I had my own private tour guide. The cave itself is quite nice (but I have a soft side for caves). Although the cave has a rather vertical layout, the tour path itself was completely horizontal and easy to walk. The stalagmites were nice but not too numerous. The highlight of the cave is the finely preserved frostwork - a crystal-like outgrowth that covers many walls and rocks. A downside of the visit was that photography is totally forbidden for non-obvious reasons.
So, while the visit itself was quite nice and by all means recommendable, the nomination as a TWHS is in a poor state. The caves seem to be put together without any clear reason or idea. There is practically no description or justification given at the UNESCO site. And caves are quite common in the world - almost every country has a few, and quite a lot are already WHS sites. So it is completely unclear what is so special about the caves in this TWHS, and why they should be world heritage. In total, the nomination seems to be at a dead end, and might be dropped without further ado in the future.
Visited in May 2023.
Importance 2/5 Beauty 4/5 Uniqueness 2/5 Environment 4/5 Experience 3/5
Community Likes
Site Info
- Full Name
- Ensemble de grottes à concrétions du Sud de la France
- Country
- France
- Added
- 2000
- Type
- Natural
- Categories
- Natural landscape - Karst landscapes and caves
- Link
- By ID
Site History
2007 Requested by State Party to not be examined
2001 Requested by State Party to not be examined
At Bureau Session
2000 Added to Tentative List
Site Links
Locations
The site has 18 locations
Visitors
27 Community Members have visited.