Sunday 16th March 2025 – Ecija, Spain

It was a peaceful night and definitely much quieter than it would have been at the aire in the town. The other advantage of this hotel is that it is very close to the third Antequera dolmen, El Romeral. We headed there soon after it opened and found it to be the most interesting. There was a very good guardian there who, although he didn’t speak English, was able to explain the site very well by speaking slowly and expressively in Spanish and indicating clearly what he was talking about. The tomb is a tholos tomb from the Bronze Age although they are still working on a more precise date. We have seen many round tholos tombs in Greece, usually built with dressed stones that gradually move into the centre until they meet high above, creating a beehive shape. El Romeral is similar although it is built with rough stones and the top is closed with a large capstone. The weight of the capstone is transferred to the walls and stops them collapsing. El Romeral is totally original – no reconstruction work has been done and the structure has remained intact after thousands of years. There are actually two tholos buildings within El Romeral, joined by a short, low corridor. It is thought that the first tholos was where ceremonies were conducted and then the dead were taken through the corridor into the smaller tholos. Fascinating.
We moved on to the site of an ancient quarry, ‘El Coto de Las Canteras’ in Osuna. This high quality sandstone has been quarried since pre-Roman times and it reminded us very much of Bath stone in England. It has a similar honey colour and has always been a favoured stone for monumental buildings. Just like Bath stone, the quarrymen followed the good stone down, eventually mining the stone by leaving the surface, poor quality stone in place and taking out the good rock from underneath. This created a large underground space that has now been turned into an auditorium for concerts, cultural events and private functions. In 2004 the owners commissioned a local artist from Osuna to carve decorations into the stone, some of those you can see in the photos below.
We drove on to Ecija and a very good aire provided by the local council. It was getting quite late but it wasn’t raining, so we decided to have a short walk around the local area. Ecija appears to be a very pleasant town with lots of churches and convents.
Photos: The tumulus of El Romeral with the entrance on the left and La Pena in the distance on the right; The entrance to El Romeral; The doorway into the first, ceremonial, tholos chamber; The ceremonial chamber with the entrance into the second, burial, chamber; The roof of the tholos showing the capstone; The main structure of El Coto with sculptures around the door that leads to the auditorium; The Bacchanalian scene sculpted in the auditorium; A view of the quarry; Cara is dwarfed by the massive all-terrain motorhome parked next to her – it comes complete with its own massive generator.