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Monday, June 20, 2022

Megaliths of the Alentejo

Two thousand years before Stonehenge, the people who built the Almendres Cromlech were lugging large rocks into place and setting them up to align with the equinox. Were they gathering there to tell stories? Perform rituals? Trade knowledge?  Maybe all of the above. 

We do know that these stones are monuments, our tour guide, Sira, told us today, and we might even see them as people, eternal guardians made of stone.
The Alentejo region of Portugal is one of richest megalithic sites in Europe. To come upon these stones today, to learn a little of their history, is to feel closer to some of our earliest ancestors, to understand a little more about what makes us human.