We travelled to Evora today, East and slightly South of Lisbon and were expecting less exciting scenery as we had read that the area, Alentejo, was relatively flat. However we started the journey by travelling over the River Tejo on the Vasco da Gama bridge and at over 11 km (7 miles) long, it was very impressive. Just over the bridge, Jane spotted a flock of flamingoes on a lake – the journey had started very well!
There was hardly any traffic on the road and we drove along gently enjoying the views of cork oak plantations, fields with many little egrets and storks nesting on pylons, standing in fields and one flying. Jane was feeling shivery, so we decided to keep sightseeing to a minimum, stopping off only once at an archaeological site, which we also combined with a picnic lunch. There were too sites very close to each other and our guidebook suggested that a reasonably long walk was involved but we found signs to the sites up a dirt track that was good enough for Henrietta. We expected to have the site virtually to ourselves, as we had done with other sites, but there was a steady stream of people including two other British couples. The first site, the Menhir of Monte dos Almendres, was a menhir (standing stone) over 3 metres high, which was quite impressive and it was at this car park that we had lunch. We then drove to the next site, the Cromlech of Alemendres, indicated as a further one kilometres but turned out to be two and a half kilometres. This was very impressive – a complex Celtic circle of 92 standing stones on a hillside with 10 inscribed stones with similar inscriptions to those in Brittany. One stone at the top of the hill had a large number of cup marks where, I assume, libations or offerings were made. Others had small dips cut in the top of the stone with shallow channels down the side of the rock. It was built between 5,000 and 4,000 BC, aligned with the equinoxes and is thought to have been used for religious and astronomical purposes. There are many other menhirs, stone circles and dolmen in the area and alignments have been detected between them.
We then drove the short distance to the Evora campsite and found ourselves amongst a large number of other British vans – something that we were not accustomed to! Also there were a very pleasant couple that we had met and chatted to at the menhir, so we had another chat.
Photos: Menhir of Monte dos Almendres with its modern counterparts in the background; The Cromlech of Almandres – note the dip cut in the stone in the foreground and the view from the hillside; A denuded cork oak tree, Cork stockpile (found later on the way to Olhao 30/1).
There was hardly any traffic on the road and we drove along gently enjoying the views of cork oak plantations, fields with many little egrets and storks nesting on pylons, standing in fields and one flying. Jane was feeling shivery, so we decided to keep sightseeing to a minimum, stopping off only once at an archaeological site, which we also combined with a picnic lunch. There were too sites very close to each other and our guidebook suggested that a reasonably long walk was involved but we found signs to the sites up a dirt track that was good enough for Henrietta. We expected to have the site virtually to ourselves, as we had done with other sites, but there was a steady stream of people including two other British couples. The first site, the Menhir of Monte dos Almendres, was a menhir (standing stone) over 3 metres high, which was quite impressive and it was at this car park that we had lunch. We then drove to the next site, the Cromlech of Alemendres, indicated as a further one kilometres but turned out to be two and a half kilometres. This was very impressive – a complex Celtic circle of 92 standing stones on a hillside with 10 inscribed stones with similar inscriptions to those in Brittany. One stone at the top of the hill had a large number of cup marks where, I assume, libations or offerings were made. Others had small dips cut in the top of the stone with shallow channels down the side of the rock. It was built between 5,000 and 4,000 BC, aligned with the equinoxes and is thought to have been used for religious and astronomical purposes. There are many other menhirs, stone circles and dolmen in the area and alignments have been detected between them.
We then drove the short distance to the Evora campsite and found ourselves amongst a large number of other British vans – something that we were not accustomed to! Also there were a very pleasant couple that we had met and chatted to at the menhir, so we had another chat.
Photos: Menhir of Monte dos Almendres with its modern counterparts in the background; The Cromlech of Almandres – note the dip cut in the stone in the foreground and the view from the hillside; A denuded cork oak tree, Cork stockpile (found later on the way to Olhao 30/1).
No comments:
Post a Comment