Xerez Cromlech

A megalithic complex that is believed to date back to the 4th or 5th millennium BCE. The present site of the cromlech is not its original location. Due to the construction of the Alqueva Dam for hydroelectric purposes, which led to the flooding of the original site from 2002, it was transferred from an area that is now under water to its present site close to the Orada Convent. Although it has much in common with megalithic stone circles, the Xerez cromlech is, in fact, square. There has been some dispute about the authenticity of the square layout or even whether it is a cromlech at all. When discovered, the stones had been widely dispersed due to agricultural work and an initial topographical survey only identified 12 stones that could be part of a cromlech, although the present layout has 55. It is acknowledged that the square shape results solely from interpretations by José Pires Gonçalves, a doctor and an amateur archaeologist from Reguengos de Monsaraz, who identified the stones as a cromlech in 1969. The 55 menhirs are of different types of granite of local origin. These are mainly between 0.37 and 2.10 meters in height, with varying shapes (ovoid, slightly flattened, cylindrical, sub-square, conical or polyhedral).