Megaliths Of Portugal

I had only visited Portugal briefly a few times in the 1990s when I made a trip to investigate the megaliths in the mountains of that country in March of 2012.

- David Hatcher

My partner Jennifer and I flew with her friend, Cathy to Lisbon from London to start our adventure. We had several good days in Lisbon and visited several museums. We then rented a car and the three of us headed west into the mountains.

Getting out of Lisbon took a while but soon we were in the countryside on our way into the mountains of the interior that form the border between Portugal and Spain. We were planning on spending the night in the town of Évora, an ancient walled city, now a World Heritage Site.

I had visited standing stones and dolmens in France, England and Ireland but this was my first visit to any in Portugal. In fact, Portugal has some of the largest megaliths in all of Europe. We headed for the Great Dolmen of Zambujeiro, or Anta Grande do Zambujeiro, one of the largest dolmens in the world. Our route would take us first to the town of Santiago do Escoural and then on small paved roads to the village of Valverde. Here we stopped for a snack and then continued on down dirt roads to find the Great Dolmen of Zambujeiro.

Located near Évora in the Alentejo region, this area has the largest stones of any passage mound in all of Portugal, and possibly all of Europe. The stones extend over seven metres above ground and the whole construction was covered with a mound on par with Maeshowe or the Irish passage mounds at the Boyne Valley. The style of the structure is unique to central Portugal, although smaller versions can be found at both Comenda da Igreja and Anta do Tapadão (also known as Anta da Aldeia da Mata). Zambujeiro is one of Portugal's treasures and a must for all lovers of megaliths.

On the ancient-wisdom.com site (www.ancientwisdom.com/portozambujeiro.htm and www.ancient-wisdom.com/portomonsaraz.htm) I found excellent descriptions of the site: