![]() Their presence is also good news for Ruben Argentas, who owns a small boat tours business. Local historical and tourism associations have advocated moving the Guadalperal stones to a museum or elsewhere on dry land. Human remains found in or near many have led to an often-cited theory that they are tombs. Although there are many scattered across Western Europe, little is known about who erected them. It was discovered by German archaeologist Hugo Obermaier in 1926, but the area was flooded in 1963 in a rural development project under Francisco Franco's dictatorship.ĭolmens are vertically arranged stones usually supporting a flat boulder. ![]() "It's a surprise, it's a rare opportunity to be able to access it," said archaeologist Enrique Cedillo from Madrid's Complutense University, one of the experts racing to study the circle before it gets submerged again. ![]() It currently sits fully exposed in one corner of the Valdecanas reservoir, in the central province of Caceres, where authorities say the water level has dropped to 28% of capacity. Officially known as the Dolmen of Guadalperal but dubbed the Spanish Stonehenge, the circle of dozens of megalithic stones is believed to date back to 5000 BC. The monument was finally seen in its entirety after 50 years, in 2019, when a NASA satellite picture revealed all the 150 stones during a drought.CACERES, Spain, Aug 18 (Reuters) - A brutal summer has caused havoc for many in rural Spain, but one unexpected side-effect of the country's worst drought in decades has delighted archaeologists - the emergence of a prehistoric stone circle in a dam whose waterline has receded. The most credited interpretations maintain that it was either used as a solar calendar or temple, a burial enclave or both.Īs a matter of fact, like many other sites, it could have originally been a solar temple, and then used as a burial place by later civilizations.įrequent inundations and its location within the Tagus River damaged the stones by eroding them and their engravings. This menhir has a snake carved on it, which is an interesting feature since it is a recurring symbol of many ancient cultures, tradition and religious iconographies, often found carved on megalithic structures and menhirs throughout the Earth, Stonehenge included. The oval shaped encircling is preceded by a corridor about 21 meters long, with a two meters high menhir at the end of it, right at the entrance of the chamber. Although menhirs are technically orthostats, the term is mainly used only to describe individual prehistoric stones that constitute part of larger structures). This kind of menhirs are also called orthostats (A term that indicated a large stone with a more or less slab-like shape that has been artificially set upright. The Dolmen of Guadalperal is made of 150 vertical standing granite stones, aligned to form an ovoid chamber with a diameter of about five meters. It is believed to have been built between 20 BCE. Also known as the Spanish Stonehenge for its resemblance to the original English Stonehenge, the Dolmen of Guadalperal is a megalithic structure located in Peraleda de la Mata, in eastern Estremadura, Spain.īecause the monument is only visible when the waters of the Tagus River, in the Valdecanas reservoir, are low enough to reveal it, it is also called “the treasure”.
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