talaiot

An imposing talaiot rose behind it, a reduced stone version of an Egyptian pyramid.

A series of kidney-shaped chambers clustered around the south side of the original talaiot has been excavated.

From the talaiot there's a wonderful view of the surrounding countryside, divided by rows and rows of stone walls.

Next to the hypostyle chamber, to the south, and also attached to the central talaiot, is another apsidal horseshoe-shaped chamber.

Necropoles of Son Real and S'Illa d'en Porros (Talaiot culture)

The talaiot and taula at the site have been slightly damaged, not least when the French army fortified it and mounted guns to fire on the British in Fort San Felipe.

The Ses Païsses settlement is thought to have begun as a cylindrical talaiot, or "turriform", built during the first millennium BC (c900-800BC) on a hillside with a commanding view of the surrounding countryside.

Of the megalithic Talaiot culture, the most outstanding constructions are s'Hospitalet Vell, es Boc, Bellver, as well as the constructions of Bendrís, Son Sureda and Sa Gruta.

There are indications of other buildings in an elliptical central area measuring roughly 65m x 55m around the talaiot, and others within the massive outer wall of the settlement, also roughly elliptical, which measures some 140m x 105m.

Built sometime between 650-540BC, long after the central talaiot and many of its surrounding buildings, this thick wall of cyclopean masonry consists of a base row of huge outer boulders, some weighing around 8 tonnes, with smaller ones (mostly now scattered) above them; it is faced on the inside with rows of smaller rocks.