Cirque de Chaleux - Houyet

The cirque de Chaleux is a cauldron-shaped valley (the Cirque de Chaleux ) that was eroded by the Lesse, with steep, wooded walls and some striking needle-shaped rocks (the Aiguilles de Chaleux ) . This gives the place a very high natural and landscape value . The entire zone of the semicircular rock face is therefore protected as a landscape by the Walloon government.

The obelisk on the right is called 'la chandelle' (the candle). Shortly after the first ascent, lightning struck the candle, which lost its top. On March 17, 1988, 'climbers' completed a zipline from the top of La Chandelle. They anchor their rope to the “boulder” at the top, which will give way and cause a fatal fall resulting in two casualties. Since and after this serious accident, climbing this beautiful obelisk has been prohibited.

Just like in neighboring Furfooz, there are also natural caves in Chaleux that were inhabited in prehistoric times . In the most important one, the Trou de Chaleux, excavations were already carried out in the 1860s by the archaeologist Edouard Dupont. The Trou de Chaleux shows the characteristics of a habitat attributed to the Upper Magdalenian (Upper Paleolithic). Carbon-14 dating on animal bones reveals ages between 12,000 and 13,000 to 170 years BCE.

Three levels of occupancy have been revealed. The excavations have yielded very important lithic material (30,000 flints including tools such as scrapers, smoothers, drills, chisels, etc. among the abundant waste), bone objects (hairpins, needles, spear points), ornamental elements (shells, perforated shark teeth, a pyrite kidney to make fire, etc.

Human bones from two or three adults and a child, as well as animal bones (reindeer, goat, ox, horse, wild boar, brown bear, fox, badger, polecat, hare, rat) were counted. Artwork has been updated; they represent animal motifs (horse, aurochs, reindeer, rabbit, mammoth) engraved on rock slabs or bones.

Willem Vandenameele