The cave site was first visited in 1864 and was slowly explored over the course of the 20th century. Niaux’s wall paintings are executed in a black-outlined style typical of the classic Magdalenian Period of Paleolithic art (about 17,000 to 11,000 years ago). Long thought to be stylistically homogeneous, Niaux’s drawings are now known, through radiocarbon dating of charcoal in them, to belong to at least two phases, which took place about 14,000 and 13,000 years ago, respectively.
Like most caves, Niaux is divided into a number of distinct areas, among them the Salon Noir, which contains panels showing bison and horses drawn in outline. The cave is also important for its surviving drawings engraved into the clay floor, including fish and a bison. Another gallery, known as the Réseau Clastres, although connected to Niaux, actually constitutes a separate cave; it was discovered in 1970 and contains five paintings.
A facsimile of Niaux’s Salon Noir (in its pristine form), as well as of other figures in the cave and the Réseau Clastres, is displayed in the nearby Park of Prehistoric Art, near Tarascon-sur-Ariège.