DOHA: UN cultural agency Unesco granted on Sunday its prized World Heritage status to a prehistoric cave in southern France containing the earliest known figurative drawings.

Delegates at Unesco’s World Heritage Committee meeting voted to grant the status to the Grotte Chauvet at a gathering in Doha, where they are considering cultural and natural wonders for inclusion on the UN list.

The cave in the Ardeche region, which remained sealed off for millennia before its discovery in 1994, contains more than 1,000 drawings dating back some 36,000 years to what is believed to be the first human culture in Europe.

French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti called the cave “a major site for humanity” that provides an exceptional opportunity for study.

It is “a jewel whose emotional power is as strong today as when it was conceived,” she said in a statement.

Unesco said the Grotte Chauvet “contains the earliest and best-preserved expressions of artistic creation of the Aurignacian people, which are also the earliest known figurative drawings in the world”.

The opening of the cave, located about 25 metres underground, was closed off by a rockfall 23,000 years ago.

It lay undisturbed until it was found by three French cave experts and almost immediately declared a protected heritage site in France.

“Its state of preservation and authenticity is exceptional as a result of its concealment over 23 millennia,” Unesco said.

Access has since been severely restricted and fewer than 200 researchers a year are allowed to visit the cave, which stretches into several branches along 800 metres and at its highest reaches 18 metres.

The painted images include representations of human hands and of dozens of animals, including mammoth, wild cats, rhinos, bison, bears and aurochs.

The paintings are more than twice as old as those in the famed Lascaux caves also in southern France and more discoveries are expected to be found in remote parts of the cave.

Researchers believe the cave was never permanently inhabited by humans “but was instead of a sacred character” and “used for shamanist ritual practice”.

With the cave itself closed to the public, authorities are building a full-scale replica of the site nearby, which is expected to open in the spring of 2015.

Unesco delegates are meeting for 10 days in Doha to consider the inscription of 40 sites on the World Heritage List and issue warnings over already-listed locations that may be in danger.

Other sites given the status this year include a vast Inca road system spanning six countries and ancient terraces in the West Bank that are under threat from the Israeli separation barrier.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2014