Sardinia is the only place in the world where you can drive through the countryside for half an hour and pass three stone towers built more than 3,000 years ago. They are called nuraghi, and over 7,000 survive: one every three square kilometres.
What are they?
They are truncated cone towers built dry, without mortar, from basalt blocks weighing up to several tonnes. The most famous, Su Nuraxi in Barumini, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997.
What were they for?
Archaeologists still disagree. The main theories:
- Fortresses controlling territory and trade routes
- Residences of Nuragic community chiefs
- Temples or places of worship
- A mix of all of the above, changing over time
What is certain: the Nuragic civilisation ruled the island for almost a thousand years, from roughly 1800 to 900 BC, and left us not a single written line.
The surprising detail
Many nuraghi are aligned with the solstices and with the position of specific stars. Coincidence? Maybe. But it is one of the reasons scholars keep coming back to dig every year.