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.