Vallée des merveilles

The Vallée des Merveilles, also known in Italian as the Valle delle Meraviglie (English: Valley of Marvels), is a part of the Mercantour National Park in southern France.

[1] The valley is located near the Italian border, in the rugged mountains of the Argentera massif within the Maritime Alps, between Saint-Martin-Vésubie and Tende.

The petroglyphs (rock engravings), located on stone outcrops within the valley, were first identified by British amateur archaeologist Clarence Bicknell in 1881.

De Lumley and a team of his postgraduate students classified the petroglyphs in the 40 km2 area, with the greatest concentration in a 14 km2 archaeological site on the slope of Mount Bégo.

[2] Henry de Lumley has theorized the petroglyphs are the work of a Mediterranean Bronze Age people who worshipped the bull and for whom Mount Bégo was a sacred site.