10 Mysterious Places You Aren’t Allowed To Visit

5. Lascaux Caves, France

Lascaux Caves Brazil
Ethan Doyle White [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

If the modern entrance to Lascaux Caves had a fancier door, it'd look like something gamers might expect to see in Skyrim. There's no way anyone feels comfortable strolling down that staircase towards certain doom. Beautiful French countryside or not, that door looks like bad news.

The Lascaux Caves are located near the village of Montignac in southwestern France. They were discovered by teenagers in 1940; they entered via a shaft leading underground, and presumably had balls of steel or guns with them. After the group discovered paintings of animals and fauna, the caves were restored and opened to the public.

It didn't take long until fungus created black mould that was dangerous to inhale. In 2008, workers finally gave up the fight against these shrooms and closed the caves to the public. That was after only one worker was allowed to enter for 20 minutes per week to see what the state of the place was.

Bad, we imagine.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.