Roque Saint-Christophe

The Roque Saint-Christophe is a large rock formation and archaeological site with rock shelters (abris sous-roche in French) at the river Vézère, near Peyzac-le-Moustier in the Dordogne in Aquitania, France. The impressive rock cliff of Roque Saint-Christophe stretches for one kilometre and rises several hundred metres above the road and the Vézère River.

The cliff has five terraces, shaped on the one hand by the river, which has carved into the stone for 60 million years, and on the other hand by the ice ages of the post-Tertiary period, which split the limestone rock. During archaeological excavations in the 20th century, numerous finds provided information about the different inhabitants of this place since prehistoric times.

This rock wall first served as a shelter for hunters and gatherers. Probably the Neanderthals settled here first, around 50,000 BC, followed by Cro-Magnon humans around 25,000 BC.

After the beginning of human sedentary life in the Neolithic period, around 3,000 BC, La Roque Saint-Christophe was continuously inhabited — through the Bronze Age, Iron Age, Gallo-Roman period, Middle Ages, and so on — until the Renaissance, until 1588, when the site was destroyed and fell victim to the Wars of Religion.