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Tholos of El Romeral

The El Romeral tholos is the most recent and the most distant of the three monuments of the Antequera Dolmens Site, about two and a half kilometres north-east of the town centre. It was built around 3000-2200 BC, in the Chalcolithic, some two thousand years after Menga and Viera, within the tradition of false-dome tombs linked to the Los Millares culture. A corridor about four metres long with a trapezoidal cross-section leads to two successive circular chambers: the first, larger, served as the main funerary chamber; the second, smaller and now closed to the public, keeps a stone serving as an altar or offering table. The chambers are roofed with courses of stone that close in towards the centre until topped by a slab, the false-dome technique of corbelled courses. A mound 75 metres in diameter, surrounded by cypresses, covers the whole, whose axis is oriented towards the El Torcal mountains, visible on the horizon.

Things to do at Tholos of El Romeral: 4 missions

• Walk around the mound of cypressesWalk around the earth mound, 75 metres in diameter, that covers the monument, surrounded by a row of cypresses.
• Look for El Torcal on the horizonThe monument is oriented towards the El Torcal mountains; from the entrance, find their silhouette against the horizon.
• Peer into the second chamberAt the end of the corridor leading from the main chamber, peer into the second chamber, smaller and closed to the public, where a stone that served as an altar or offering table is preserved.
• Observe the false domeLook up in the main chamber and follow the courses of stone that close in towards the centre up to the final slab: it is the false-dome technique of corbelled courses.

Near Tholos of El Romeral

Source: Web oficial - Museos de Andalucía (Conjunto Arqueológico Dólmenes de Antequera)