Cales Coves necropolis

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Coordinates: 39 ° 51 '50.2 "  N , 4 ° 8' 44.8"  E

Map: Balearic Islands
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Cales Coves necropolis​
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Balearic Islands

The necropolis Cales Coves ( German  cave bays ) consists of almost 100 natural and artificial burial caves on the Balearic island of Menorca . You are about 10 kilometers from Alaior .

meaning

The bay is surrounded by high cliffs and vertical rock walls in which the caves are located. This is the largest group in Menorca. The necropolis was in the Bronze Age (1400-900 BC) and in the subsequent Talayotic (900-550 BC) and post-Talayotic Iron Age (550-123 BC) in six zones in the rock walls of the valleys of Binidali and Son Domingo carved.

  • Cales Coves

  • Burial caves in the rock walls

  • "Es Fornet" - natural cave with Cyclops masonry

  • Portal of cave 81

  • Burial caves in the rock walls

  • The Bay

The caves are the most important talayotic necropolis in Menorca (next to the smaller one in Cala Morell ). This structurally designed burial site includes chambers that are round or square in shape. The Iron Age caves have larger and better developed chambers, with altars and niches, rectangular entrances with decorations, wall pillars and atriums carved out of the rock. On June 3, 1931, the Cales Coves were declared a Historic Monument by decree. Today it is registered as an archaeological site ( Zona Arqueológica ) under the number RI-51-0003150 .

The necropolis is one of the 32 archaeological sites that Spain officially proposed on January 14, 2016 as " Talayotic Culture of Menorca " for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List . The World Heritage Committee postponed the application at its 41st meeting in July 2017 and requested improvements.

use

The caves were built from the 11th century BC. Until about the arrival of the Romans in 123 BC. Used. They were excavated and the material was taken to the Menorca Museum. From the Roman era onwards, Cales Coves was only visited as a place of pilgrimage, as evidenced by the inscription from the cave "Cova dels Jurat" or "l'Esglesia".

Access

The caves can be reached on foot on a signposted path from the nearby free car park. From Cala en Porter it takes about half an hour on the Camí de Cavalls .

literature

  • Cristóbal Veny Meliá: La necrópolis protohistórica de Cales Coves, Menorca (=  Bibliotheca Præhistorica Hispana . Volume 20 ). CSIC Press, Madrid 1982, ISBN 84-00-05096-7 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • LP Massanet: La Casa Prehistorica a Menorca 2000
  • Consell Insular de Menorca: Archaeological Guide to Menorca

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Necropolis and Es Castellet at Calescoves on the Menorca Talayótica website (English)
  2. ↑ Cultural heritage database at the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (note: search for “Cales Coves”), accessed on September 16, 2016.
  3. ↑ Talayotic Culture of Minorca , on the Spanish tentative list at UNESCO (English), accessed on October 28, 2017.
  4. ↑ World Heritage Committee (Ed.): List of nominations received by February 1, 2016 and for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 41st session (2017) . (English, unesco.org [PDF; 427 kB ]).
  5. ↑ World Heritage Committee (Ed.): Decisions adopted during the 41st session of the World Heritage Committee (Krakow, 2017) . (English, unesco.org [PDF; 4.5 MB ]).

Web links

Commons : Cales Coves Necropolis  - Collection of images, videos and audio files