Last January, during a visit to the Archaeological Complex of the Antequera Dolmens, the Councillors of the Presidency, Public and Internal Administration, Culture and Historic Heritage, Mr Elías Bendodo and Mrs Patricia del Pozo,, announced the end of the works in the Museum Site after an investment of 4.5 million co-financed by the European Union through the Feder funds.

The Antequera’s Major, Mr Manolo Barón, pointed out: “today is a historical day because, once again, we are writing something for the history of the town. After nearly four decades when the creation of the Dolmens Museum was proposed, the works are finally finished”, it stressed the Major who personally thanked the effort made during the last two years to this end by the Autonomous Government presided by Mr Juanma Moreno “Antequera becomes again what it is, an international example of culture, archaeology and Megalithism”.

The Museum of the Dolmenes de Antequera Site will have a permanent exhibition to highlight the universal values acknowledged in this archaeological complex. Thus, it meets the recommendations of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee about transferring the citizens the features which have deserved the inclusion in the World Heritage List.

Because their size and constructive characteristics, the Antequera megaliths are an exceptional legacy from the European Prehistory. Thanks to these three monuments, we can know the funerary practices and rituals of a very much organized prehistoric society of Neolithic.

In this chapter, we will be carried away by the dolmens mystery, their history, hidden messages… The more than 200,000 visitors who each year visit this complex attracted by the history of our ancestors are simply shocked by this place.

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The known as El Romeral dolmen is different from the Menga and Viera ones as regards the construction architectonical technique. It is a sepulchre of fake dome, usually called “tholos” and which was constructed with the row’s approximation technique. This resource allowed creating closed spaces by approximating stone rows as they gain height, in concentric circles, until closing the upper opening with a large slab. In this way, the two funerary chambers of this dolmen were built.

Also, and unlike Menga and Viera, El Romeral was built by mainly using spare masonry; that is, medium and small stone labs joined together without using any kind of mortar.

All the above turns this dolmen into a peculiar sepulchre with a long corridor ending in a large funerary circular chamber which leads to a second corridor, much smaller, that gives access to another small chamber. The whole is covered with the biggest tumulus of the three Antequera sepulchres and it is surrounding by a cypress perimeter.

The Tholos El Romeral is one of the very few examples in the Iberian Peninsula where the orientation is towards the half-west of the sky. Its axis points -another peculiarity- at the highest rock point of the El Torcal mountain range, the Camorro de las Siete Mesas. At noon, during the winter solstice, the sun light gets deep into the second sepulchre chamber. You can enjoy this phenomenon by previously booking.

Approximately 4500 years old, the Viera Dolmen, like the Menga one, can be considered as a corridor sepulchre as it also represents one of the great megalithic traditions of the Iberian Peninsula: the lintelled architecture.

This dolmen is formed of a long corridor divided in two sections. At the end of the latter one there is a quadrangular chamber, which is accessed through a holed door, where the corpses and their trousseaus were placed. It is more than 21 m long and it is covered by a 50 m diameter tumulus.

Like Menga, it was constructing by using the orthostatic technique. It must be emphasized how perfectly the large blocks of stone are cut. These stones used in the constructions came for a quarry located 500 m away, in the current Antequera quarter named Los Remedios.

The Viera Dolmen faces east, slightly towards southeast, following the European standard pattern. Thanks to this fact, at dawn, during the spring and autumn equinoxes, the sunbeams get deep into the sepulchre chamber. Public can enjoy this spectacle by previously booking.

The Menga Dolmen was erected more than 5500 years ago and is one of the summits of the lintelled architecture in the European Prehistory. The grandeur of this dolmen lies in the creation of an amazing inner space incomparable with others from the European Megalithism where it is not common the use of internal pillars, which is other Menga singularity.

This dolmen can be considered as a corridor sepulchre with three different sections: an atrium, a corridor and a large funerary chamber; however, the difference between the two latter ones is very little defined. The whole monument is 27.5 m long and it is covered by a 50 m diameter tumulus (an artificial mound).

The dolmen was constructed by using large upright slabs (orthostats) and horizontal ones (capstones). Among those large stones, it is worthy to mention the dimensions of the one at the top of the sepulchre and the weight, around 150 tons, of the one covering the funerary chamber. The fact of moving these stones from a quarry which was then located in the surrounding area of the dolmen had to be a difficult task. Visitors can get an idea of the construction process by watching the Menga audiovisual presentation projected in the Centro de Recepción.

During the works carried out in 2005 it was found out another peculiarity of this dolmen: a deep and narrow well placed inside the last section of the funerary chamber whose construction has not been dated yet.

However, and without downplaying the above, the worldwide significance of Menga lies in the intimate link with landscape as it is the sole dolmen in the continental Europe facing an anthropomorphic mountain, the Peña de los Enamorados. Menga’s central axis intersects this rock in a place known as Abrigo de Matacabras, where there are cave paintings in schematic style.

The visit to this site of great heritage value and tourist interest also includes others stops along the way. Firstly, it is worth to mention the Centro de Recepción where an interesting documentary about the Menga construction process is shown. After leaving the Centre, visitors usually stop at the Observatorio del El Caminante (the Walker Observatory): a space dominated by the sculpture after which is named and from which you can see the Peña de los Enamorados and the Cerro Marimacho hill besides realizing their spatial link between the Menga and Viera Dolmens.

Following the access way to the Campo de los Túmulos, where you finally will enjoy the Menga and Viera dolmens, there are others outstanding landmarks of the visit: the Centro Solar Michael Hoskin (solar centre) whose name pays tribute to one of the pioneers in the studies about Archeoastronomy, and the Memorial de los Dólmenes, a one hundred year olive tree that, during many years, was in the Menga atrium.

The complex formed by the Menga, Viera and El Romeral Dolmens located in the Málaga town of Antequera and awarded as UNESCO World Heritage in 2016 is an archaeological space of extraordinary beauty and singularity, besides one of the best examples of the European Megalithism. As it is usual in the megalithic monuments, these constructions are characterized using large blocks of stone to form chambers and covered spaces, with ritual and funeral purposes.

The Menga and Viera Dolmens are in the same area which is easily accessible by foot from the centre of the Antequera town. The El Romeral megalithic sepulchre, even if also is part of the complex, is placed 4 km way so it is better to go by car.

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