When traveling in the Lot department in France, not far from the city of Cahors, one can stop for a jump through time in the old phosphate mines of Cloup d’Aural. Going down the 98 feet (30 m) hollow is like going millions of years back into the past. Visitors can discover fossils and even traces of the passage of an ancient tropical sea. It used to cover the area more than 170 million years ago.