We were driving toward Sagres and thinking about spending a night or two there, as we had in 2010, when, west of Lagos, we saw a sign for the Alcalar Dolmen. We almost always follow such signs, even when, as in this case, we know nothing about the monument. There is much of megalithic interest in Portugal, and the sites seem much better identified and presented than on our previous visit. Alcalar turned out to be a late neolithic/chalcolithic complex, and the one tomb open for viewing was another tholos/beehive tomb, such as we saw near Antequera.
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| A complex of quite a few sites |
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All this in the little museum, with a video; larger displays in
the museum at Lagos, which administers the Alcalar sites |
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Out in the field now; obviously this is a classroom for
education about megalithic life (a school bus pulled up as we
were leaving) |
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| Tumulus |
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| And in English too |
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| Neolithic classroom |
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| Entrance |
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As we'll see shortly, there is a central chamber
with two side chambers; not huge, but corballed,
tholos-style; I did not go inside...it was a close
fit, and bees were buzzing about inside...the nerve!
bees in a beehive tomb! |
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| Another site |
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Trying my hands/shoulders at megalith building; I think I might
have been more of a supervisory type... |
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| Well, it was a medium-lith |
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| Explaining the limestone kiln, which I am not sure was neolithic |
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| It was relatively huge, however |
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Non-neolithic hacienda nearby; we wondered how the discovery
of nearby megalithic centers affects real estate values |
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Looking down into the tholos tomb...you can just barely make
out the corballing... |
