Antequera Rocks: Dolmens Of Antequera

We had not heard of Antequera's megalithic center until this trip. We've always been focused on the megalithic centers in France, the UK, and Ireland. But Antequera's three, probably four, sites merit attention from anyone interested in megalithic matters. They were just awarded World Heritage status in 2016. Their age ranges from 1800 BCE for the Tholos/Romerol site to 3800 BCE for the Menga and Viera sites. Give or take a few hundred years, as usual. All three are unique in their own ways. Romerol is a tholos or beehive tomb, unlike anything we have seen in the neolithic world although we saw several in the Mycenean world, in Greece. (As befits the Myceneans, their tholos are colossal, cyclopean, but much younger, Bronze Age.) The Menga and Viera dolmen at Antequera both are quite large--Menga is said to be the largest in Europe--and it is sometimes compared with Newgrange in Ireland, in size. Most importantly, while Viera has the solsticial orientation that most megalithic monuments have, Menga clearly is oriented toward a natural feature, the Penas de los Enamorados, a nearby mountain of striking prominence. Romerol is on a line from Menga to the Penas, but itself appears oriented toward the Tacul mountains back toward the city of Antequera. The presentation of it all, in the visitor center, the video, the pamphlet, and the openness of the site, is exemplary. And in English too.

In the visitor center, honoring the several archaeologists who have worked on the
Antequera dolmen; nice to see such recognition; the video on the building of
Menga was wonderful; entirely CG, too

A little foreshadowing...that's the Penas de los Enamorados on the left; tumulus
X on the right

Walking toward Viera and Menga, a tribute to the archaeo-astronomer Michael
Hoskins

Entrance to Viera

By northern Atlantic neolithic standards, it's humongously huge

Inside

Vicki stands for scale in the entry

Entrance to Menga

The stones used here are limestone, presumably lighter than the building materials
one sees in the megaliths of France, UK, and Ireland, and hence they are very
large, by comparison with those places; so large that the problem of supporting the
enormous capstones was solved by an entirely new concept: a central post; Menga
has 3 such posts, or, one might say, menhirs

Thus; the supporting posts are unique enough; the size of the chamber, in every
dimension, is larger than anything we have seen

Among the curiosities: toward the back of Menga, a 20m deep well, said to be
of Bronze Age origin

Standing for scale at the back of the chamber

Capstone

Vicki examining the construction technique

Thus

Looking back out the entry

Meanwhile, back at the visitor center, some local kids get a lesson in what their
forebears were doing 6,000 years ago

Another curiosity; never mind the civic center in the foreground; in the middle 
ground is another, much larger, unidentified tumulus, so I had to ask back at the 
visitor center whether it had been  excavated; no, I was told, it is on private 
property, but the government of Andalusia is trying to obtain it...

2-3k up the road, we are at the entrance to Romerol, the tholos or beehive dolmen,
the youngest of the Antequera trio, another tumulus

The long dry-stone entry; again, larger than practically anything we've seen before;
note trapezoidal design (really tied things together; had the Incas seen this?!)

There are two beehive chambers in Romerol, only the first
of which is open

Thus; note capstone above; through the passage way you can
see into the 2nd beehive chamber with a convex mirror inside...

Via which you can see some of the interior of the second chamber

Note huge capstone over entry

Just for a fun comparison, here is Vicki standing in a Mycenean tholos, February,
2011

Romerol's tumulus; nicely landscaped

A last look, driving toward Malaga, at the Penas de los Emamorados