2005 © Oficina Virtual de Turismo
Évora: capital of the Iberian megalithic
The outskirts of Évora, and especially the land immediately to the West of the
city, make up the most diverse and monumental megalithic landscape in the
Iberian Peninsula.
The amount and size of the megalithic monuments in Évora is related, first and
foremost, to the area's privileged location in terms of natural travelling
routes: in fact, on the outskirts of the city we can find the only place at
which the hydrographical basins of the three largest rivers in the South – the
Tagus, the Sado and the Guadiana – meet.
The structural role, for primitive road networks, of waterlines and hills – the
lines dividing the hydrographical basins – was certainly a determining factor
in the exceptional nature of Évora’s megalithic heritage.
Megalithism apparently emerged as a phenomenon rooted in the cultural practices
of the last hunter-gatherer communities, reflecting profound ideological
changes, originating in the eastern Mediterranean, along with a new
agro-pastoral economy. The specific character of the area around Évora seems,
in this context, to be a consequence of the dynamics of the megalithic
communities which, in the Tagus and Sado estuaries, just as in Brittany, two of
the most important centres of the European Atlantic seaboard.
 2000 years before Stonehenge:
the Almendres megalithic site
The Almendres site is the largest megalithic monument in the Iberian Peninsula
and one of the oldest of Humanity's monuments.
It was, it would seem, built around 7000 years ago, at the dawn of the
Neolithic, the time when the first communities of shepherds and farmers were
emerging in Europe.
The Almendres site, whose original layout was, very probably, a horseshoe
shape, open towards the east, seems to have been added to and altered: the
monument’s current shape, which is relatively complex, is partially the result
of these old interventions and, also to more or less recent amputations and
disturbances. The monument currently comprises around a hundred monoliths, some
of which are decorated.
The solitary stones: The Monte dos Almendres menhir
The Monte dos Almendres menhir is an a long oval-shaped example, which is a
characteristic of the menhirs in the Évora area and has a crosier engraved in
shallow relief on the upper part of the side which now faces west.
The location of the monument is clearly related to the Almendres site, as it
corresponds to an elemental astronomic direction: the menhir as seen from the
site indicates the positions in which the sun rises, on the longest day of the
year, the day of the Summer Solstice.
The megalithic cathedral: The Large Zambujeiro Dolmen
The Large Zambujeiro Dolmen is, probably, the tallest in the world, with large
granite supports that reach up to 6 metres in height. The stone structure of
the monument is made up of a chamber defined by six supports (plus a closing
stone over the entrance to the chamber) is a long corridor. The group was
covered with monolithic covers; the covering slab of the chamber currently lies
over the mamoa, on the western side.
 The pre-historic origins of the city of
Évora: the village o Alto de S. Bento
Alto de S. Bento is the large natural viewpoint over the city, to the East, and
over one of the best preserved landscapes on the outskirts of Évora, to the
West, where in fact the main monolithic monuments in the region are located.
It is a true “megalithic” village, in that it was occupied throughout the whole
period in which menhirs and dolmens were built in the region, and also because
there used to be large granite outcrops here, which have since been reduced due
to quarrying.
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