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Today many French and Spanish caves and grottoes have their present
entrances re-arranged. Some of them, for example, Lascaux,
Altamira have
new entrances at all and the old ones are bricked up. The territories near the
entrances of such caves as Rouffignac, Pech Merle,
Cougnac, Castillo and
others are improved, there are stands with plans of the caves and their
neighbourhood,
souvenir shops, cafes and rest places. Inside the caves there
are platforms, railings, pathways and artificial lighting, switching on and off
while the visitors are passing by. At some caves - Pech Merle,
Altamira and
others, profound museums are organized. Specialists have different opinions
in regard to the cave improvement. Some of them think
that the original
interior of a cave should not be changed. Brothers Begou¸ns'heirs, for
example, only closed the cave entrance with a steel grill. Rare visitors (only
specialists) must put on overalls and rubber footwear and a helmet with a
lamp - on the head.
Not a single tiny detail in the cave is changed; sometimes
you have to crawl on all fours in the narrow passages with puddles on the
floor. Depictions in dim light of a lamp on the helmet make the deepest
impression. But the Begîu¸ns estate also has a small but wonderful museum
with all the subjects, found in the cave and near it, many interesting letters
and telegrams, newspapers and magazines of the period of the cave discovery.
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