<< Our Photo Pages >> Cromeleque dos Almendres - Stone Circle in Portugal in Évora
Submitted by cmariasousa on Tuesday, 10 April 2018 Page Views: 39256
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Cromeleque dos Almendres Alternative Name: Menir e Pedras dos Almendres na Herdade dos Almendres, Portugal's Stonehenge (groan!)Country: Portugal Distrito: Évora Type: Stone Circle
Nearest Town: Évora Nearest Village: Guadalupe
Latitude: 38.557510N Longitude: 8.0615W
Condition:
| 5 | Perfect |
| 4 | Almost Perfect |
| 3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
| 2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
| 1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
| 0 | No data. |
| -1 | Completely destroyed |
| 5 | Superb |
| 4 | Good |
| 3 | Ordinary |
| 2 | Not Good |
| 1 | Awful |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
| 4 | Short walk on a footpath |
| 3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
| 2 | A long walk |
| 1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
| 4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
| 3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
| 2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
| 1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
| 0 | no data |
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External Links:
I have visited· I would like to visit
TheCaptain visited on 12th Oct 2019 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 Access: 4 From the menhir parking, travel a couple more kilometres along the dirt road, and there is a large parking place for the cromlech, a short walk further along. What a fabulous place, especially in the late afternoon golden sun.
Once a double circle of stones, it now appears to be rather unclear, but the approximately one hundred stones are fabulously shaped, several with carvings, but mostly very difficult to make out.
It's a busy place with lots of visitors, and rather like the Pied Piper, I gain a following of people (including several American's over here from Nashville), who want to know my knowledge of the place and for all my thoughts as to why it is here. They struggle with comprehending that it is over 6000 years old, as old to them is a hundred years!
As I later find with the other two cromlechs I visit, it is positioned on a hilltop position on the gently east facing slopes. Could this be something to do with watching the sunrise at these places? This is a place I could come back to again and again if it was local to me!
43559959 visited on 4th Apr 2019 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 Access: 5
rrmoser visited on 9th Jun 2018 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 4 A famous and inspiring place.
Jansold visited on 6th Jun 2015 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 4 Access: 4 Set in cork oak groves, in lovely setting and views over surrounding country. Quite a long bumpy drive over unmade track.Car park is a few hundred yards away. Some stones have faint engravings.
Ana visited on 16th Aug 2014 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 5
Bak_teria visited on 16th Aug 2014 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 4 Access: 4
SimonBlackmore visited on 5th Sep 2013 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 4
DaveEssel visited on 1st Jul 2013 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 Access: 4 As someone from Orkney, it was fine to experience a different style of megalith
ModernExplorers visited on 1st May 2012 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 4 Stone circle set on a hill in Portugal. There are some markings on one of the stones and it appears as though crystals are forming on some of the rocks
Superstitio visited on 21st Dec 2011 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 4 This place is great and still has many engravings, most of them can only be seen at night using tangent light.
It is in the middle of nowhere and it gives it the good feeling of going back in time, the road that goes there is a dirt road usually in good condition, and you can park very near the cromelech.
pmansvelder visited on 6th Jul 2011 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 3 Easy to find, in the middle of Cork Oaks, beautiful view of Évora to the east. We were there in the middle of the day, so the markings were hard to see.
Kuba visited - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 4
SimonBlackmore DrewParsons Magalhaes have visited here
Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 4.42 Ambience: 4.67 Access: 4.08
Original info by CMariaSousa:
Stone Circle in Alentejo, 10 km west of Évora, in the district of the same name, about two hours south of Lisbon. The site has 94 menhirs of several shapes and sizes. It is well kept and visited by many tourists.
Almendres Cromlech stands in the midst of a vast cork plantation near the town of Evora. Around 6,000 years ago, the inhabitants of this arid plateau dragged nearly 100 gigantic granite stones to a sloping, dusty mound. There they erected them in roughly concentric circles and in an indecipherable sequence of heights.
'Temples of the Equinox' Guided tours, March 17th - in conjunction with the Science of Religion course of Universidade Lusófona.
Aditional info by Bak_teria:
The Almendres stone circle was discovered by the researcher Henrique Leonor Pina in 1964, when the Geological Chart of Portugal was surveyed. Covering a wide chronological range, from the Middle Neolithic to the Iron Age, from the end of the 6th until the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, this site presents among other elements a stone circle of irregular circular plant, composed of 95 granite monoliths placed in small clusters in an area of approximately 70 x 40 m with an NW-SE orientation.
The monoliths have as a whole an almond shape, some of considerable dimensions, with about 2.5 m in maximum height, despite the preponderance of the small ones.
It should be emphasized that most of these 95 monoliths were detached until they were replaced by the team coordinated by the researcher Mário Varela Gomes, who took special care to identify their original location.
However, this same team has tried to find the settlement that would be associated with it, identifying a small Chalcolithic settlement in its vicinity, whose investigation becomes essential for a better and more complete understanding of the world that conceived them and the people who built and reused them over the centuries. In fact, this is a cultic site with a strong magical-symbolic charge which denounces a unique example of the re-use of the same sacralized space over time. It also reflects the very economic, social and ideological changes that have taken place in this very long time span and in what is considered to be the largest set of structured menhirs in our peninsula, and one of the most important of European megaliths.
About some menhir decorations and relationated artefacts
As for its decoration, the presence in some of these monoliths dimples or sinuous and radial lines is verified. Some of them, both by the profusion of decorative grammar and by their strategic positioning within the whole set, seem to take on the role of authentic stele menhirs. The menhir known as 48 exhibits a schematic anthropomorphic representation, surrounded by circles and associated with representations of frames. In addition to this, the menhir known as 57 features 13 figurines of staves, executed in relief and on a natural scale. As for the movable specimens found during the different excavation campaigns, ceramic fragments and a polished stone axe were collected.
About the access
The location is very easy to find, once you get out of Évora by the national road 114 there are signposts pointing your way to the Almendres location. You must get to Guadalupe and there are signs pointing your way everywhere. Once you get to Cromeleque street you follow it until you reach the dirt road that gives you access to the Almendres site. When you get to the Imani Country House Hotel junction follow the left road. In all you will drive about 1.8Km in this dirt road and then you reach the Almendres menhir site. There's a place where you can park your car. From here you must travel 2.4Km until you reach the car park.
Links and information sources (all texts written in portuguese)
- DGPC
- Portal do Arqueólogo
Visit also the Almendres Menhir located in the vicinity.
Aditional information:
- You are entering in private property but the access is possible.
- The entrance to the zone of the monuments may be blocked by fences that were essentially made to demarcate the land and not allow the escape of livestock. Usually there are spaces in the fences within these demarcated areas where the access is possible. When entering in demarcated land never forget to close the access gate of the location, you need to be very aware with this rule because cattle can escape.
- There are no signs prohibiting us from entering so the access can be open but be careful when you explore every time you see this red plaques that alert you for the Hunting Zones. Remind yourself that usually hunters can only hunt at selected hunting days (Thursdays, Sundays and on public holidays).
- Always be sympathetic towards the locals.
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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
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1.4km ENE 57° Menir dos Almendres* Standing Stone (Menhir)
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6.9km S 179° Vale de Rodrigo 2* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
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