Hello and thank you for downloading witness with me Lisa Louis from the BBC World Service.

And today we go back to September 12, 1940 when a group of French schoolboys discovered

the Lascore Caves, a network of Paleolithic cave paintings in the Vizaire Valley in southwestern France.

It was one of the biggest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.

In this cave, far inside, we see the work of some very capable artists.

In the cave there are some glorious pictures.

These pictures have existed on the walls of the caves for over 20,000 years.

One of the schoolboys who found the caves for over 20,000 years.

One of the school boys who found the caves was Simon Kunkas.

He is now 89 and lives in Paris,

and he's had a tracheotomy following throat cancer, which is why his voice sounds strange.

When we first saw the Hall of the Bulls with its huge paintings, we were in ecstasy. We had shivers down our spines. We just thought

this is impossible. The boys found the cave by accident. Simon Kwan Kass was 13 years old at the time and that day he was walking

through the woods near the village Montignac with his friends Jacques Jac Marcel and

George Aniel.

We had heard a legend saying that there was a tunnel leading to the nearby Chateau Lascaux and treasure hidden in that tunnel.

There were some girls in the area, refugees from the war in the rain, and we wanted to impress them.

So we headed off to search for the treasure.

On the way we met our friend Marcel Ravidat.

He told us his dog had found a hole in the ground.

Maybe that was the tunnel.

When we got there, it was getting dark.

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