Portugal – 191007 Evora

TODAY’S TOURING

We began the day with a pleasant breakfast at the guest house. Our first task for the day was to find spare batteries for my Sony RX10 camera.

• Tried a local shop, BJ Photo & small electronics shop => no luck
• I will make do with the one generic USB battery I have and charging the battery through the camera.

The theme for today’s touring is Megalithic sites. We had concerns driving in and out of the town center on were concerned using our auto.

• It was a hot day (90 degrees F).
• Last night we used Google Maps Street View to walk through the path to exit and re-enter the historic center of Evora. It helped a lot.
• The sites we visited
  • ▲ Cromeleque dos Almendres
    • Visitors center with all the exterior siding cork.
    • Rest facilities.
    • We read several outdoor signs describing the nearby megalithic sites
    • We drove down a dirt road to the site. I was glad we had pre=programmed thed Garmin the night before.
    • A tour arrived after us. The parking lot was full, including a tour bus, when we left.
    • I had trouble spotting all the stones with carvings because they were severely weathered.
  • Menhir de Almendres
    • Single standing stone near Cromeleque dos Almendres/
    • From the dirt accesses road, we walked on a washed-out path to the nearby menhir (standing rock).
    • I didn’t think anyone else would be there, but there were several people including cyclists.
  • ▲ Anta Grande do Zambujeiro Dolmen
    • The next stop was 10 miles away. The final stretch was a rutted, one-lane, dirt road. Luckily we didn’t meet any caurs.
    • No one there when we arrived. However, 5 or 6 cars arrived while we were there and we met a couple of cars on the way out. It was an isolated area, so I was surprised to see so many cars and people.

We drove back to the guest house and rested, and ate snacks with our espresso.

REFERENCES

▲Cromeleque dos Almendres (Rick Steves)

This Portuguese Stonehenge, dating from about 5500 B.C., stands in the midst of cork trees down a dirt road.

Almendres Menhir (wikitravel)

The Almendres Menhir (Menhir de Almendres) is single standing stone near Evora in Portugal dating from 5000-4000 BC. Standing about 4 meters high, it has some faint markings near the top. It is aligned with the nearby Almendres Cromlech roughly towards the sunrise on the winter solstice. Local legend has it that the menhir is the tomb of an enchanted Moorish princess, who can be seen combing her hair once each year on the eve of São João.

▲Anta Grande do Zambujeiro (Rick Steves)

This large megalithic dolmen, a burial tomb, is one of the tallest of its kind and dates to 4000-3000 B.C.