As the boats cruise up and down the Douro River, many passengers on board hardly notice the tributary river. As they sip their wines and note the vineyard estates along the banks, they might take a moment to pause and look past the disused train bridge and note the low, rectangular building on the hilltop …
The hot sun beats down on your head. You can hear the rush of water as the Côa River cascades over rocks: the invitation to enjoy the cool of the green waterside is almost irresistible. But the rocks beckon. On the edge of the beach area, and running up the hillside, an abundance of engraved …
The river flows quietly but steadily past the riverbank. The water laps softly against the jetty. Water flows past the rocky outcrops, relentlessly. Turning from their ancient engravings, you watch it head towards the ocean. Beneath the surface, the water flows over other outcrops of rock. Hidden below, more engravings remain unseen and unseeable. What …
As you walk down the cement canyon, the walls close in on you and the blue sky dwindles. Darkness encloses you and it seems like you are traveling into the bowels of the earth and back in time. Within, you are surrounded by art and artefacts of life as it was tens of thousands of …
ALSO IDENTIFIED AS: Dólmen 2 (or Anta 2) de Chão Redondo, or Monumentos Megalíticos do Chão de Redondo From a distance, it doesn’t seem very extraordinary. There’s a remnant of the large mound of stone and earth which originally covered the prehistoric tomb. The tomb itself looks fairly typical of an average-sized neo-chalcolithic chamber tomb. …
ALSO KNOWN AS: Dólmen de Antelas, or in English: the painted dolmen of Antelas On a small dirt road, in the deep interior of central Portugal, rises a small hill. Go around to the back and you find that this is no normal hill: it is an artificial mound. A tumulus, or (in Portuguese) a …
A group of stones in the forest show cup (or “cupule”) marks (the Portuguese term is covinhas, which translates as “dimples”). These are a distinctive prehistoric decoration technique. The carvings are seen on several stones: some are connected by grooves, and others form distinctive alignments or sets. The carvings have been investigated by archaeologists, but …
Protected by the overhanging rock, the red stains stand out. Even after five thousand years, the shapes and designs can still be made out. What their significance is, we can only guess. Some depict people, others animals, while others are abstract symbols. One panel shows groups of lines: were these ancient people keeping count of …
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