Name: Menir do Outeiro
Address: PT

What the sources say

The Menhir of Outeiro (Portuguese: Menir do Outeiro), also known as the Penedo Comprido (long boulder), is a megalith located midway between the villages of Outeiro and Barrada near the municipality of Reguengos de Monsaraz, in the district of Évora, in the Alentejo region of Portugal. It is a few kilometers from the Portuguese-Spanish-border. The stone was discovered on its side in 1969 by Henrique Leonor Pina and José Pires Gonçalves and, on the initiative of Gonçalves, was raised again around 1970. The menhir was classified as a Portuguese National Monument in 1971.

The granite monolith is 5.6 meters high with an average diameter of one meter, and weighs an estimated 8 tonnes. It is the second largest in Portugal. The top has a hollow of 30 cm in diameter, which is believed to represent a urethra, thus giving rise to the understanding that the megalith symbolizes a phallus. It is considered one of the best examples of a phallic menhir in the Iberian Peninsula. Based on its similarity to other megalithic finds in the Évora district, the menhir is believed to date from the Late Neolithic or Chalcolithic.

The Menhir of Outeiro (Menir do Outeiro), also known as the Penedo Comprido, meaning long boulder, is a megalith in the Alentejo region of Portugal. It stands midway between the villages of Outeiro and Barrada near Reguengos de Monsaraz, in the district of Evora, a few kilometers from the Portuguese-Spanish border.

The granite monolith is 5.6 meters high, with an average diameter of one meter, and weighs an estimated 8 tonnes. It is the second largest in Portugal, after the Menhir of Meada. The top has a hollow 30 cm in diameter, which is believed to represent a urethra, giving rise to the understanding that the megalith symbolizes a phallus. It is considered one of the best examples of a phallic menhir in the Iberian Peninsula.

The stone was discovered lying on its side in 1969 by Henrique Leonor Pina and Jose Pires Goncalves. On the initiative of Goncalves it was raised again around 1970. It was classified as a Portuguese National Monument in 1971.

Based on its similarity to other megalithic finds in the Evora district, the menhir is believed to date from the Late Neolithic or Chalcolithic. The atlas gives a typological estimate of 4000 to 1000 BCE. Menhirs of the western European megalithic type are usually not associated with burials, and theories about their purpose remain speculative.