Alliat (; oc, Aliat) is a
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
in the
Ariège department and
Occitanie region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...
in southwestern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
.
Geography
Commune in the "Haute-Ariège" part of the
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...
located 15 km from the city of
Foix
Foix (; oc, Fois ; ca, Foix ) is a commune, the former capital of the County of Foix. It is the capital of the department of Ariège as it is the seat of the Préfecture of that department. Foix is located in the Occitanie region of south ...
and 5 km from the city of
Tarascon-sur-Ariège, in the "Parc naturel régional des Pyrénées ariégeoises".
Population
Inhabitants of Alliat are called ''Alliatois''.
Sights
* The "cave of the cow" (): with distinctive
archeological strata discovered in its entrance and in the "salle Monique", opened to the public in 1979. It produced a remarkably rich collection of prehistorical objects from the Magdalenian era (12,000 to 14,000 years old), including a large number of harpoons and
assegai points as well as more than 200 pieces of art: bones, engraved
reindeer
Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 sub ...
and
red deer
The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of we ...
antlers,
sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...
of animals, sometimes of humans, as well as rare species for that period:
panther,
bear,
wolves
The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...
,
Saiga antelope,
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
s and
salmon
Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...
.
:It was one of the first caves explored in Ariège (
Félix Garrigou, in 1866). A second ''salle'' was discovered in 1952 and was explored by its discoverer, Romain Robert, until 1964.
* Fortified cave Spoulgas d’Alliat: located 100 m south of the cave of the cow.
[Maps and descriptions available in "Monographies villageoises en Sabarthès", Florence Guillot, 1999.]
Activities
* Rock climbing around the caves
* Horse riding
See also
*
Communes of the Ariège department
References
Communes of Ariège (department)
{{Ariège-geo-stub