Showing posts with label Son Mercer de Baix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Son Mercer de Baix. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Whose Wedding?

As we were hungry bears after our morning's walk, our priorities were food first and exploring second. We were very impressed that we could get up close and personal with these ancient monuments and there were no barriers or signs saying 'don't touch'.

When we got to the high point of the settlement and looked all the way down to the valley floor ...


not only were we wowed by the view (don't look for us in the picture, we weren't hang-gliding), but we took our metaphorical hats off to those ancient talyot peoples as we appreciated their strategic choice of defensive position.

Not far from our lunch spot, we came across some more interesting constructions of indeterminate age. They certainly weren't ruins, as you can see from our next picture showing the one we passed closest to ...


... but there again they didn't look much like modern constructions. We decided they looked just like tiered wedding cakes - typical of Yorkie, he was disappointed that they weren't edible. Both of our romantic illusions were quickly shattered when we consulted our guide book, and read that although they looked like Babylonian ziggurats (we hadn't though of that one), they were cattle sheds known as ponts. We chuckled to ourselves as we read on, to find out that some of these structures have recently been built to provide homes for people, rather than cattle, since they don't require planning permission.

If we were living in one we'd want a few more windows!

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Prehistoric Bears

Some of our readers will be familiar with our 'What's in our Lunch Box' series of posts. In Menorca, the emphasis was more on 'Where's our Lunch box?' than 'What's in our Lunch Box?' as we had our picnic in some very interesting places.

On this wonderful walk we had our lunch among the prehistoric ruins of the ancient settlement of Son Mercer de Baix. They were really old - as they would be being prehistoric - and they created a wonderful atmosphere and a real feeling of history.


Can you see us perched on one of the supporting pillars of the famous Cova des Moor. The historians and archaeologists call this structure a room shaped naveta, but we're less romantic and would simply call it a cave. It was quite large and therefore required 3 stone pillars of the type you see us perched on at the entrance. It was truly amazing to think that this settlement was first inhabited between 2500 and 1800 BC, but even stranger to think that our lunch of ham and cheese bocadillos might not be that different to the lunches eaten all those years ago.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx