Archaeology and Megalithism - Monsaraz Hike
This is an easy circular Hike and we can choose between three distances of 7 km (4.5 miles), 12 km (7.5 miles) or 14 km (8.7 miles). My career in Archaeology began here, on the Alqueva Dam project, 25 years ago. Here we had more than 2000 heritage surveys and archaeological excavations. This demonstrates the immense potential of the region. We're going to know some of these excavations and visit some of the monuments. The highlight is Megalithism because we have more than 2000 monuments in the Alentejo. The largest concentration of monuments from this period in the world. In the Middle East, 12000 years ago, Man began to domesticate land and animals. This led to sedentarization and the development of complex societies. Metals were not known and the tools were made of hard stone. We know this period by the name of the Neolithic, the period of the New Stone. The Neolithic arrived on the coast of Iberia 7000 ago.The rivers became roads taking the Neolithic to the interior. The Alentejo has been a humanized landscape since then. In the Neolithic the Culture of the big stones, or Megalithism, was born. Around Monsaraz we have lots of monuments from this Culture: Burial Mounds called Dolmens, Standing Stones called Menhirs and groups of Menhirs called Cromlechs. In the Alentejo this Megalithic Culture started in the Middle Neolithic, 6500 years ago. and lasted to the Bronze Age, 4000 years ago.
We’ll start our hike in Monsaraz and walk down medieval paths called “Ladeiras”. Walled paths made of thousands of slate stones covered in lichens and protected from the sun by centuries-old olive trees. On the outskirts of Monsaraz we’ll find the ruins of farms and various associated structures like apiary walls, orchards and olive groves. In Monsaraz and on the outskirts we have seventeen temples. One of these Temples was an Islamic Qubba where a Holy man called “Morabito” used to live. We will pass by a Temple dedicated to "Saint Lazarus", in the Middle Ages anyone with contagious diseases, such as leprosy, had to come and live here. We’ll also walk through a Medieval Temple built by the Knights Templar to protect a pilgrimage route. We’ll visit a 6000 years old Cromlech from the culture of Megalithism. This circle of stones was a huge astronomical year clock. We’ll continue our hike near Orada Convent crossing a Medieval bridge. We're going to visit Bulhoa Menhir with beautiful carvings. We'll go through the typical Outerio Village and we will visit another Menhir. This Menhir has a phallic shape and fertility rituals are still performed here. We'll go through Barrada Village and head towards the ancient Pega Olive grove. Here we'll visit two Dolmens that were excavated and where hundreds of people were buried with hundreds of artifacts. We now head towards Aldeia do Telheiro. We can visit an old mill where olive oil and flour were produced. We’ll go up to Monsaraz by the medieval paths all the way to the medieval fortification. Walking in the old “Barbacã” we’ll storm the Castle through the main gate.
Arriving in Monsaraz we can do a Tour in the Village.
