Torre d'en Galmés facts for kids
Torre d'en Galmés is an amazing ancient village on the island of Menorca. It's located between the towns of Alaior and Son Bou, Menorca. This special place started way back in the Talayotic era, around 1400 BC. People lived and built here for a very long time, even through the Roman period. After the Romans left, the village was empty for a while. Later, during the time when Christian kingdoms were taking back Spain, some Muslim people used the old buildings again. They stayed until the Muslims left the island.
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Where is Torre d'en Galmés?
This ancient village sits on a small hill. The hill is steeper on its south side. From here, you can see a huge part of the southern coast. On a clear day, you might even see the mountains of Majorca! As the village grew, it spread out towards the south. The people who lived here were very smart. They built a clever system to collect rainwater. This water flowed down the hill into special storage tanks called cisterns.
Torre d'en Galmés was one of the biggest villages in the Balearic Islands. Its high spot allowed people to look over other nearby towns.
What are Talayots?
At Torre d'en Galmés, you can find three large stone towers called talayots. These towers are very old. From the top of these stone towers, you get the best views of the land around. This suggests they were used as watchtowers. They helped people see if anyone was coming. Between the middle and western talayots, there is an open area. This space might have been a public square where people gathered.
Besides the three talayots, you can still see parts of the old defensive walls. Some houses on the edge of the village also had strong outer walls for protection.
The Taula Monument
There is a special horseshoe-shaped area with a unique Menorcan monument called a taula. A taula is a T-shaped stone structure. It was likely a religious site where people worshipped. This taula seems to have been complete until the end of Roman times. Today, its top horizontal stone is separated. It lies between the entrance and the tall vertical pillar stone. You can see two different stages of building in the curved back part and the sides. These parts are made of surprisingly smooth, large stones.
Ancient Houses
The houses in Torre d'en Galmés are built in a special circular way. The outside wall is made of big stones. Inside, radial walls create different rooms. There was also an open-air central patio. This is where the fireplace and a water storage tank (cistern) were located. One of the houses that archaeologists dug up, called "house 1," used the rocky slope. It even included a cave!
In the southern part of the village, one circular building has a well-preserved "Sala Hipostila." This means "room of columns." It's next to the house, and large rocks still form its roof. The columns are wider at the top than at the bottom. Experts believe this room was used for storing things and keeping livestock like sheep or goats.
During the Roman period, some houses were changed. They got more rectangular rooms inside. They also used smaller stones for building. More changes were made when Muslims lived there.
Water System
In the south of the village, there is an amazing and very clever system for collecting and storing water. It uses a series of underground cisterns. These cisterns are connected by channels. At least one cave was used to store water during the Talayotic period. This cave was even older, used as a burial chamber before 1400 BC.
The Talayotic people also made a filter system. They created curved dips in the ground. These dips were partly filled with small stones. This helped to clean the soil out of the water.
Artefacts Found
Many interesting objects have been found at this site. One of them is a small bronze statue. It shows an ancient Egyptian architect named Imhotep. People thought he was like a god. His worship spread all around the Mediterranean Sea.
See also
In Spanish: Torre d'en Galmés para niños
