In the mountainous border region between France and Italy lies the Vallée des Merveilles. Still surprisingly remote, and dominated by Mont Bégo, it contains alpine meadows, rare flora and fauna, spectacular glaciated rock formations, and over 35,000 Bronze Age rock engravings that are only free of snow for a few months of the year. Though this major archaeological site was mentioned in print around 1650, the first thorough guidebook was published in 1913 by Clarence Bicknell (1842-1918), a Cambridge graduate and Anglican clergyman who had settled on the Riviera around 1880. Bicknell published several books on the botany of the region, but it was not until the 1890s that he began in earnest to explore the petroglyphs, a project he continued into his seventies. He built up a collection of over 12,000 drawings, rubbings and photographs, which form the basis of the 46 plates that illustrate this book.
