Cromeleque do Xerez

I'm an archaeologist by heart (and studies) so visiting these kind of archaeological sites makes my day. Close to the Medieval village of Monsaraz, you've got a so called cromeleque (stone circle/rectangle) from the Late Stone Age/Neolithic period, ca 4000 B.C. - 3000 B.C.

The stones have been raised again in 1969, since they were found lying down and excavated on the grounds of the Xerez estate about 5 km south of Monsaraz. Now they stand next to the village of Telheiro north of Monsaraz because they were relocated so that they would not be flooded when the Alqueva dam was built in the area. There are about 55 menirs (standing stones) ranging from 40 cm to over 3 meters. The menir in the middle of the stone rectangle seems to represent a phallic symbol and shows some very weathered rock carvings, small cupmarks, on the sides. The stones are made from local granite varieties and show different shapes and sizes. In the nearby area of the original cromeleque the archaeologists found stone tools as well as some pieces of ceramic vessels. The material found at the site seems to indicate the stones were used during the whole of the Neolithic and maybe occasionally  even during the Chalcolithic/ Copper Age period as well. 

If you are passing by with a car or hiking in the area, just go for quick visit. Enjoy the view over the plains and hills in the area from there. Ponder over what made people create these structures back then which must have take a huge communitarian effort in order to carve out those hard stones from the granite rocks, rolling/pulling or God knows how they got them into place, planning each and every rocks positions in order to correlate with astronomical happenings. In a time and place where clocks and calendars did not exist, and where farming was the livelihood of people, maybe these where the only way to keep the correct time, who knows?