Talayotic Menorca

Talayotic Minorca is Spain's submission for 2022. The revised documents are now available from the excellent nomination website. They’ve even added an Epic Subtitle: “Talayotic Menorca - A cyclopean island odyssey”. The 25 locations have been decreased to 9, but that’s just a cosmetic adjustment as the former locations are now bundled into clusters. Only the Torre del Ram near Ciutadella has not survived the cut. As far as I can see all suggestions made by ICOMOS during the Deferral of 2017 have been incorporated. All but one that is: the Necropolis at Son Real on the neighboring island of Mallorca has not been included. The Minorcans seem to want a WHS all for themselves! The process has cost 1 million EUR already.

None of the sites lie particularly convenient to be explored by public transport. The best ones for that would be Trepuco (cluster 8), about 3km from the nearest bus stop in Mahon, and Torralba d’en Salort (cluster 6) which lies about 4km from Alaior. One could also take a taxi to one of the sites and then walk back. Menorcaarqueologica does offer guided hiking along some of the sites with an archeologist. In the end, I choose to rent an e-bike for the day from bikemenorca. The distances between the sites in the southeast of Minorca are perfectly suitable for cycling.    

My visit didn’t get off to a good start: I sped past the turnoff to Talati D’Alt (not signposted from the ME12). …

We spent two short days in Minorca in October 2021 to check out the upcoming nomination to the list for next year. Presently there are 25 locations enlisted, but the selection of sites is likely to be and should be reduced.

The first 4-6 visits were nice, they added something different, but then it was too much of the same. Some of the sites are neglected and need to be maintained. It seems that the best sites were those with an admission. So which one will survive? Here is our bet after visiting 18 sites. 

The best sites overall:

Talati de Dalt: 4€ admission, well organized. Has a bit of everything. Special to the site is a taula which is a little bit different from the others and there are covered enclosures

Torralba d’en Salort: 4€ admission, well organized. Has a bit of everything with a great taula and a hypostyle chamber.

Torre d’en Galmes: 3€ admission , Mondays free, well organized. The largest complex and the best-preserved settlement. It is particularly noted for its cercles or post-taylotic houses.

Naveta sites. We visited two. 

Naveta des Tudons: €2 admission, a well preserved naveta, considered as the most iconic landmark.

We also visited Rafael Ruby which has two burial navetas. Not very organized right now, but it seems to be stepping up with several new information panels and maybe a ticket booth. It was closed, but we sneaked in. Here you …

Minorca/Menorca is riddled with sites to enjoy the Talayotic culture. There is even one AT the airport road so you could basically fly in, walk 10 minutes or less and "tick" this off. I actually did not check this one out because I had a car and was recommended a lot better things from the lady at the car rental. It is also a massive change in tourist numbers from the nearby islands, so calm and relaxed.

I drove to 3 places. Two "rubble", not that interesting, and tough to park, free of entry like most sites on the islands (if not all?). It really only takes a few minutes to walk around these and the grass wasn't cut so not much fun. The third place, much more interesting, was the Cales Coves Necropolis. You can park and walk down with some shades paths and mostly flat, enjoy a sit at the playa, see some of the necropolis on the way and in the bay. Yes, they are just caves now and you cannot even go up there but it gives you an idea that the culture was present everywhere on this island. The area was an anchorage for trading boats and then re-used in Roman times as a sanctuary. A couple had brought their kayak and I was a bit jealous they can go out into the blue sea on this chilled out, underrated island.

In retrospective I should have sought out a museum to complement …

The Talaiotic Culture is an ancient society established on the Balearic Island between the Iron Age and its replacement by the Punic and the Roman cultures. Menorca Island has many stone remains of that culture, of which 25 are to be considered to be nominated as WHS.

I used to have family vacation on Menorca, the least developed and most natural island on the Balearic Islands. Vacation on Menorca is rather laid-back. Development on Menorca was slow, and unlike Ibiza and Mallorca, huge concrete hotels and vacation town are absent. Beaches are very nice, with clear blue water, often enclosed between trees-covered cliffs on both sides.

The talaiotic remains are spread out all over the island, and you cannot miss them (least of all one just after exiting the airport coumpound). It would take some time to cover all of the 25 sites. Public transport is efficient, but renting a car is cheap and would save a lot of time. I would recommend to at least see the two most emblematic sites, which are Es Tudons and Talati de Dalt.

Getting to visit those archeological sites, you quickly have to get used to some vocabulary:

-"navetas", which are pyramide-like funeral buildings, only found on Menorca. The name naveta come from the catalan word for boat, as those structures often look like upside-down boats.

-"taula" which are ceremonial vertical monoliths which is topped by an horizontal stone (forming a T or a table). The name taula comes from catalan word for …