Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Thai cave is located at the eastern entrance of the village of Saint-Nazaire-en-Royans, at the foot of the Vercors Regional Natural Park (Département de la Drôme). This tourist site, crossed by an underground river falling into the Bourne, forms a maze of galleries of 530 meters, extended by a drowned area explored by divers. The last recorded exploration was in August 2017, led by diver Xavier Méniscus, who stopped in a room without an apparent exit.

At the end of the last ice age, the cave was home to groups of hunter-gatherers living in a cold steppe environment, populated by reindeer, bears, wolves and snow-spawns. These remains testify to a prehistoric human occupation in a region today marked by its karst heritage. The name "Tai" would also come from a local species of badger, reflecting the ancient link between the site and its wildlife.

Part of the cavity is now designed for public visits, allowing to discover both its geological history and its prehistoric past. The cave is part of a territory rich in caves and natural cavities, as can be seen from the references to the Vercors massif and the glaciations in the associated sources.

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