[1] It was officially discovered in September 1901 by pre-historians Denis Peyrony, Abbé Breuil, and Louis Capitan.

The entrance of the cave and the right-hand gallery had already been excavated by Émile River between 1891 and 1894.

Abbé Breuil described 291 drawings divided into 105 separate sets — a discovery he himself called an "enormous firecracker in the world of prehistory".

Scientists have identified 600–800 drawings of isolated animals and undecipherable tectiforms (i.e. upward-pointing wedges) in the cave.

Horses appear most frequently in these drawings — isolated, in herds, and together with other animals — but the reindeer are famous for their naturalistic appearances — some of them drawn as if drinking water from the river flowing through the cave.