Menir de Odiáxere
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
Photo Bextrel · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
What the sources say
O Menir de Odiáxere é um monumento megalítico situado nas imediações da vila de Odiáxere, no concelho de Lagos, na região do Algarve, em Portugal.
Article in PortugueseRead on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
The full article
Menir de Odiáxere: the whole story
In briefSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Menir de OdiáxereCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Menir de OdiáxereCC BY-SA 4.0
The Menir de Odiáxere is a megalithic monument near the village of Odiáxere, in the municipality of Lagos, in Portugal’s Algarve region. It stands close to one of the entrances to the village and is classified as a standing stone.
The monument has a cylindrical form and a broken top. Its decoration is its most distinctive feature: raised wavy lines form vertical bands across the central area of the stone.
Nearby archaeological finds include pieces of worked flint and fragments of ceramic vessels. One vessel was especially notable for its decoration of vertically arranged cords. These remains may have belonged to a settlement or habitat, although their precise relationship to the menhir is not known.
The Menir de Odiáxere probably belongs to the Neolithic period. A typological estimate places it between 2800 BCE and 1800 BCE. The wider setting is one in which standing stones of this type are especially common in northern Spain, while Portugal has its greatest concentration in the Alentejo.
No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the Portuguese article "Menir de Odiáxere", shown in the original language.
Summary in EnglishSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Menir de OdiáxereCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Menir de OdiáxereCC BY-SA 4.0
Menir de Odiáxere is a menhir (standing stone) in Odiáxere, Portugal. A typological estimate: 2800 BCE to 1800 BCE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the Portuguese article "Menir de Odiáxere", shown in the original language.
História e descriçãoSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Menir de OdiáxereCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Menir de OdiáxereCC BY-SA 4.0
O menir encontra-se perto de uma das entradas da vila de Odiáxere. Apresenta uma forma cilíndrica, com o topo partido. Destacam-se os seus motivos decorativos, compostos por linhas ondulantes em relevo formando faixas verticais, na área central do menir.
Nas imediações foram descobertas algumas peças líticas em sílex e partes de recipientes em cerâmica, sendo um destes de especial interesse pela sua decoração, formada por cordões na vertical. Estes vestígios poderiam ter sido parte de um habitat. O menir integra-se provavelmente no período neolítico.
How this page was madeSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Menir de OdiáxereCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Menir de OdiáxereCC BY-SA 4.0
The summary at the top of this page was written by MiniMax-M3 (2026-11-08) from the cited Wikipedia article “Menir de Odiáxere”, translated from Portuguese. The numbers in it were checked automatically against the source text. The rest of the page is the article itself, the structured records and computed distances.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Iberian menhirs
In Spain menhirs of the western European megalithic type are relatively unusual compared with dolmens, but are common sights in the northern half of the country, where at least 500 have been reported. They are particularly common in the Basque Country, Navarre, northern Burgos and Palencia, Cantabria and the Pyrenees, usually standing alone or in small groups (cromlechs) in elevated places. Most appear to date back to the Stone Age. They are not usually associated with burials, though at the Menhir of Cuesta del Molino in Burgos burials were made at least 2,000 years after the menhir was raised. The Arlobi menhir is one of the most recent examples.
Portugal's highest concentration is in the Alentejo, where the Menhir of Meada is the largest on the Iberian Peninsula. The Menhir of Outeiro, near Reguengos de Monsaraz in the district of Évora, is the second largest in Portugal: a granite monolith 5.6 metres high, about a metre across and an estimated eight tonnes. It was found lying on its side in 1969 by Henrique Leonor Pina and José Pires Gonçalves and re-erected about 1970, and was classified as a national monument in 1971. A hollow in its top has been read as a urethra, so that the stone is taken as phallic; that is an interpretation, not a fact.
The Almendres Cromlech near Évora is the largest group of structured menhirs on the Iberian Peninsula, and one of the largest in Europe. It belongs to the "megalithic universe of Évora", with parallels in the Portela de Mogos cromlech. Its beginnings have been put as far back as the sixth millennium BCE, which would make it extremely early, and it was rediscovered in 1966 by Henrique Leonor Pina.
When visiting, look for stones on high ground and note which way they face.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Menhir, Wikipedia: Menhir of Outeiro, Wikipedia: Almendres Cromlech, Wikipedia: List of menhirs · CC BY-SA 4.0
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Photographs
3 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 2800–1800 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for menhirs in Portugal; this site has not been dated itself. Standing stones are associated with the Beaker people of the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age c. 2800-1800 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Portugal
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 37°08′46″ N, 8°39′44″ WFor a GPS or map app: 37.14613, -8.66215
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
- Menhir (standing stone)Sítio arqueológico da Quinta da Queimada2800–1800 BCE
Menir da Cabeça do Rochedo4000–1000 BCE
Megalithic Monuments of Alcalar4500 BCE–600 CE
Pedra Moirinha2800–1800 BCE
Menir de Aspradantes2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Menhires de Milrei2800–1800 BCE
Conjunto de menires de Milrei e do Padrão4000–1000 BCE
Menhire von Vila do Bispo e Raposeira2800–1800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q122364130wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Sítio arqueológico da Quinta da Queimada1.7 km S
- Menir da Cabeça do Rochedo5.2 km W
- Megalithic Monuments of Alcalar8.8 km NE
- Pedra Moirinha9.7 km E
- Menir de Aspradantes20 km SW
- Menhires de Milrei22 km SW
- Conjunto de menires de Milrei e do Padrão22 km SW
- Menhire von Vila do Bispo e Raposeira22 km SW
- Jaciment arqueològic de Barrada23 km NW
- Crómlech de Amantes 224 km W
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Text from the Wikipedia article "Menir de Odiáxere" (Portuguese), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (Portuguese): Menir de OdiáxereCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q122364130CC0