We had one week on Menorca and saw only a small part of what there is to see.
There are hundreds of prehistoric sites for example and in the end we only visited two or three which we found by chance when driving to or from our daily walks.

Following a sign for Torrellafuda,  we drove down a long sandy lane and ended up in an almost empty car park. The only sounds were of birds singing in the surrounding olive tree groves. There are no restrictions on entry – no tickets or barriers. Passing through a gate, we were in a field full of wild flowers with a group of standing stones peacefully guarding the entrance to a cave

I said before in these tales of Menorca that I was constantly reminded of Cornwall and here yet again I had a strong sense of the connection between these two places. I started to ask myself if it was more than a coincidence. Perhaps it is not Menorca that reminds me of Cornwall but Cornwall that has reminded me of Menorca?

This site is known as Talaiotic which describes the people who lived here in the Bronze Age, taking their name from the emblematic stone built look outs called Talaiots.
They left behind them many other monuments and we can only guess at the meaning and significance of these remnants of this long ago culture.

 

 Taulas are the stone altars

and there are also dwellings, stone walls and burial chambers

First you arrive at the stones – they are close to the entrance to a cave

 Inside it is dark and damp.  It is high enough to stand upright but only just. Once inside there is another round room with stones along the edge for sitting on, or perhaps for laying things on?

There is a phospherescent green glow all around – bringing back memories of Carn Euny of course.
It looks a bit creepy doesn’t it but once inside I didn’t want to leave. 

I stood in the centre of the first cave and just as I was thinking ‘this is an interesting place’ I started to feel an immense powerful emotion build up in my chest. Before I knew what was happening I started to cry. A lot!  Weeping like there would be no end to it.  I stayed there for about half an hour and the feeling subsided, the tears stopped just leaving me peaceful and with a sense of somehow coming home to this place. It wasn’t the sort of thing I usually experience. I love ancient sites and can spend hours normally trying to connect with the energies of old. but this was different – it just happened to me without any effort on my part and without any understanding of what it was about.
Here is a photo of someone who has just been plugged in to something mysterious in a cave

Coming out of the cave and turning left there is a path that leads to the original settlement where they built the large stony hill or talaiot for keeping lookout over the surrounding countryside, as far as the sea. A little further on is the settlement and some broken stone altars and the remains of the town walls with small entrance holes

This site is one of the many Talaiot settlements on Menorca.

Talaiots are Bronze Age megaliths, stone built towers,  dating back to 2000 BC.
Climbing up high on the Talaiot you can see for miles, as far as the coast line.
Imagine in the Bronze age how long it would take to walk from here to the coast!

  Thanks to this web site about Menorca for some of the information I found about the Talaiotic culture.