A seven-foot-tall stone warrior protects himself with a shield that he raises over his head as he watches or scrutinizes the visitor with wide eyes. he is one of the Giants of Mont’e Prama, one of the 25 statues whose fragments have been assembled and restored after remaining in a pit in Sardinia from some time between the 11th and 8th centuries BC until their discovery in 1974. Today they are exhibited in the archaeological museums of Cabra and Cagliari , the capital of the Italian island.
These images of warriors and elite members of a Bronze Age community, which for some unknown reason were torn to pieces before being buried, are the main legacy of the fascinating Nuragic culture, along with the megalithic fortresses and towers scattered throughout much of the world. of the Sardinian territory and in whose construction unknown resources were used due to their sophistication in the contemporary civilizations of the western Mediterranean of more than 3,000 years ago, such as the use of support corbels. The National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari It is therefore an essential visit before beginning a tour of the main prehistoric sites, but also Punic and Roman sites, in central and southern Sardinia. The museum, located in the historic district at the top of the hill from which the Sardinian capital extends, exhibits, in addition to the statues of the Giants, tools, weapons, vessels, prehistoric Venuses, masks, stelae, ceramics or jewelery from periods ranging from the Neolithic to the domination of Byzantium.
The enormous archaeological heritage of the beautiful island is perhaps a lesser known facet, eclipsed by the glamor from the Emerald Coast and the beaches with crystalline waters. But such a purely Mediterranean ancient history, with the development of autochthonous megalithic cultures and Phoenician, Greek, Carthaginian, Roman, Byzantine, Aragonese and Spanish colonizations in a territory located halfway between Iberia, Rome and North Africa has resulted in a overwhelming repertoire of sites and ruins, many very well preserved.
From Cagliari, the road that leads to the outskirts of the town of Barumini, where the the most impressive Nuragic fortress in Sardinia, It traces a straight line of 60 kilometers to the north and crosses a typical landscape of the south of the island: an evergreen flat land where numerous farms and small population centers are located.
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But in Sardinian culture, gastronomy is almost more important than archeology and, since lunch is eaten here two or three hours earlier than usual in Spain, before entering the megaliths that are more than three thousand years old, it is advisable to try the delicacies of Sardinia. Sa Lollain the same Barumini, is a restaurant in a rural house with a beautiful garden where the barbecue is slowly roasted maiale (pork) that, crispy and very tender, is going to be served after the antipasti typical (based on cooked ham, sheep cheese with honey or fig jam, salami, olives and grilled vegetables) and the pasta dish with botarga, the fish roe so appreciated among Sardinians. If the stomach leaves room for dessert, fruit is not usually served on this island, but sweets, pastries or buns that some dip into the cappuccino or in the glass of grappa.
A kilometer and a half from Sa Lolla, His Nuraxi di Barumini, A site declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, it is the largest nuraghic fortress in Sardinia, built mostly in basalt between the 13th and 6th centuries BC, with a large, well-preserved central tower rising 14 meters from the 18 that it reached in its origin and another four around it that have maintained at least the foundations. The interior of the great tower houses several rooms whose use is unknown, in the same way as that of the same structure, since it is not clear that it had a defensive purpose. And from its highest point you can see the remains of the houses of the Neolithic people that extended from its base.
Stop in Cabras
To continue with a tour of the main archaeological landmarks in the south of the island, the ideal is to sleep in Barumini and leave the next morning for the town of Cabras, some 80 kilometers further north and in the Gulf of Oristano, on the coast western. Cabras is located a short distance from Mount Prama, where the famous Giants were found, so in its small, but interesting, Archeological Museum five of them are on display, as well as tools and other Neolithic objects and pieces excavated from the nearby ruins of the historic city of Tharros. The section dedicated to the cargo of a shipwreck that occurred around the 1st century BC on the coast of the island of Mal de Ventre is fascinating: amphoras, anchors and tens of thousands of lead ingots from the Cartagena mines that the sunken vessel was carrying. .
11 kilometers south of Cabras, at the southern tip of the Sinis peninsula, Phoenician navigators founded the city and port of Tharros in the 8th century BC in a privileged enclave a short distance from the Balearic Islands, Tunisia and Sicily. And they did it on a much older nuraghic settlement; as evidenced by the remains of a tophet, an altar dedicated to human sacrifices located in the upper area of the enclosure. After the Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Romans left their legacy in the form of temple columns, remains of baths and, above all, in the layout of a city that Ptolemy described as one of the most important in this area of the Mediterranean and which was abandoned towards the tenth century, given the impossibility of defending it from Saracen attacks, although the Aragonese would try centuries later with the erection of one of the many towers that they built on these coasts. That of Tharros is in good condition after six centuries.
For a good rest after the tour of these ruins that extend over a wide strip of land, 30 kilometers inland from Tharros, in Tramatza the Orro and Ecomuseo del Vernaccia di Oristano agricultural estate offers an entire oenological experience to learn about the process production of a native wine with 3,000 years of history. And, of course, it includes a tasting of the different varieties.
And there is no better culmination for a trip through the archaeological beauties of southern Sardinia than the site of the ancient city of Nora, whose founding is attributed by legend to the Tartessians led by their chieftain Norax and history, again, to the intrepid Phoenicians. About 40 kilometers southwest of Cagliari, almost at the southern end of the island, Nora contains much better preserved remains than those of Tharros and, likewise, in the wake of the Phoenicians it was colonized by Carthaginians and Romans. Also covered by a Spanish tower from the 16th century, here you can see the plan of a temple of Tanit, the same Phoenician goddess of Ibiza; a small but magnificent Roman theater, the only one in the south of the island; the foundations of the first-century warehouses, with the groove still marked by the sliding doors; the hot springs, the public fountains… and all this on the shores of the most splendid Mediterranean.
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