Dólmenes de Menga y Viera. Highway Málaga

The Dolmen route of Antequera
Address:
Dólmenes de Menga y Viera. Highway Málaga – Granada s/n. 29200
Antequera.
Tholos de El Romeral. Highway 232, in the direction Córdoba. 29200
Antequera.
Telephone: 670945453 - 670945452.
Mail: capa.epgpc@juntadeandalucia.es
Visiting Hours:
Tuesday through Saturday from 9:00 - 18:00.
Sunday from 9:30 - 14:30.
Closed on Mondays throughout the year, January 1st, May 1st, and
December 25th.
Access into the Archaeological Site ends 15 minutes prior to closing
time.
Admission is free.
THE MEGALITHIC NECROPOLIS AT ANTEQUERA
The monuments of Menga, Viera and El Romeral form one of the most
outstanding megalithic sites of Europe. Although very varied in form,
megalithic architecture can be roughly characterised by the use of
large blocks of stone to create spaces (principally chambers and
passages) that are were for ritual and funerary purposes.
Megaliths represent the earliest form of monumental architecture
known in the Prehistory of Europe: according to the currently
available evidence, they appeared during the Neolithic period, about
6500 years ago. Among the first farming societies of Europe,
megalithic architecture had a powerful ideological value in
establishing the connection between the communities and the land
(and its resources) in which they lived. Through their role as
mortuary chambers, some megaliths acted as physical repositories of
cultural and genealogical identity. Through their role as temples and
ritual spaces they also provided the background for ceremonies
involving cults of agricultural fertility and the ancestors.
THE BUILDERS OF THE MONUMENTS
The builders of the Antequera megaliths were the first farming
communities that occupied the fertile lowlands (the so-called vega) of
the Guadalhorce valley. Not far from the megalithic monuments, a
series of settlements from the Neolithic and Copper Ages have been
identified (the periods in which the megalithic phenomenon
flourished, from about 5000 to 2200 BC). In the El Torcal karstic
formation (south of Antequera) and at the Sierra de Mollina (further
to the Northwest), cave settlements of the Neolithic period - such as
Cueva del Toro, Cueva de la Pulsera or Cueva de la Higuera - have
been found, and archaeological research has been undertaken in
some of them. The closest settlement to the megalithic necropolis,
however, is Cerro de Marimacho, a small hill lying some 200 metres
east to Menga and Viera. Here, in the late Copper Age (c. 2600-2200
BC), there was a small open-air village with semi-subterranean hutlike dwellings. It is likely that the challenging enterprise of building
the massive megalithic monuments required close cooperation
between several communities that shared religious codes as well as a
notion of common kin or tribal ancestry.
DOLMEN DE VIERA
The "Dolmen de Viera" is a chambered tomb made up of a long
corridor which is divided into two sections, and a chamber with a
rectangular shape in plan. Access from the corridor to the chamber is
through a square-shaped aperture carved in a stone slab. Like
Menga, Viera was built using orthostats (upright stones). The total
length of the inner space is 21m, although if evidence obtained from
recent excavations is considered this could be extended to more than
22m (taking into account the stone that covers the chamber as well
as the one that would have covered the outer access). Its average
width varies between 1.30m at the entrance and 1.60m inside the
chamber. Each side of the sepulchre must have been formed by 16
uprights, of which 14 are preserved on the left side and 15 on the
right side. The back of the chamber is marked by a single, large slab.
Five of the roofing slabs are preserved, although two more are
broken. Three or perhaps four more roofing slabs, now disappeared,
may also have originally existed. The whole monument, which was
covered by a large mound, faces East (96º azimuth), following the
well known trend of the vast majority of Iberian megaliths.
DOLMEN DE MENGA
The "Dolmen de Menga" is a passage monument consisting of a
forecourt, a corridor and a chamber. The chamber is slightly oval in
plan and the transition between the corridor and the chamber is
marked by a very subtle change in the alignment of the uprights on
both sides. Menga was also built using the so-called orthostatic
technique, with a total length of 27.5m from the forecourt to the
backstone of the chamber. The height of the roof increases gradually
as the visitor moves inwards, from 2.70m at the entrance to 3.5m at
the far end of the chamber. The maximum width of the monument,
6m, is at the far end of the chamber. Each of the sides of the
monument is formed by 12 uprights, with a large backstone closing
the space at the innermost end. The roof is formed by 5 huge slabs,
some of which are more than a metre thick (a sixth covering stone,
just outside of the entrance, is now missing). One interesting feature,
recorded during the recent excavations carried out inside Menga, is a
shaft, cut into the natural sandstone bedrock, 1.5m of diameter and
19.5m deep, and aligned with the three pillars of the monument. The
entire monument is covered by a mound. The Northeast orientation
(azimuth 45º) of the monument, facing North of the sunrise during
the summer solstice (June 21st) is anomalous among Iberian
megalithic monuments. Instead, Menga seems to face La Peña de los
Enamorados, a prominent mountain whose shape resembles,
according to local tradition, the face of a dormant giant.
THOLOS OF EL ROMERAL
El Romeral is a typical tholos tomb (a type of tomb with 'corbelled'
roofing forming a vault). Its corridor of dry stone masonry has a
maximum surviving length of 26,30 metres, an average width of 1,50
metres and an average height of 1,95 metres. The corridor is roofed
with 11 covering slabs. The chamber, with its characteristic 'false
dome' roof, has slightly vaulted sides of masonry capped with a
horizontal slab. It has a circular plan, 5.2m in diameter and 3.75m
high. The rear of this chamber opens into a small passage leading to
a small chamber which reproduces, at a smaller scale, the shape and
construction method of the chamber already described. The complete
length of the preserved monument is slightly more than 34m. The
tomb is covered by a mound which is unusually oriented on an
azimuth of 199 degrees, or South-South-West, making it one of the
very few examples of a westerly oriented monument in the whole of
the Iberian Peninsula.