The tombs of the giants - this is how the monumental collective burials of the Nuragian era (1800 - 500 BC) are majestically and mysteriously called in Sardinia. There are more than 800 of them all over the island.
The structure of the tombs consists of a burial chamber about 30 meters long and 3 meters high, formerly covered with a layer of earth. The most intriguing characteristic is the semicircle of huge stones dug vertically into the ground in front of the burial entrance. Moreover, the central stone is usually much higher than others and reaches a height of up to 4 meters!
Over time, these tombs were used as collective repositories of remains, where the Nuragians performed rituals to honor their dead, drawing inspiration from the cult of the Mother Goddess and the Bull God (hence the semi-circular stones symbolizing the horns of the bull). Imagine the horror and bewilderment of the Sardis, the descendants of the Nuragians, who happened to find such structures full of human bones centuries later! It is no coincidence that on the sardo the tombs of the giants are sometimes called Sa Domu 'e s'Orcu - the House of the Orc with the remains of the giant's terrible meal inside. Doesn't it look like anything? Of course, Thumb Boy! So many fairy tales, it turns out, have quite historical explanations …
But back to our tombs, because this is far from the only legend and mystery associated with them. In the central, highest slab there is a small door, symbolizing the "transition" between the kingdoms of the living and the dead. In front of this passage there was a small table where gifts could be left to the dead. By the way, the tradition of leaving treats to a departed family member after the funeral is still found in some areas of Sardinia.
Some legends that have come from the distant past of Sardinia claim that the tombs served as the burial place for huge creatures, in fact, giants, who lived on the island several thousand years ago. These creatures looked like people in everything, but only reached 2.5 - 4 meters in height. After the discovery in Sardinia at the end of the 20th century of the famous statues of the Giants of Monte Prama, this legend found a new life. They have already started talking here about the mysterious cyclopean race that lived on the island many thousands of years ago and came … who knows where?
Other stories say that the "Tombs of the Giants" are located in special places - special "nodes" of certain energy flows that can give a "push" to the souls of the dead so that they can reach the afterlife. Those who support this theory believe that places for the construction of these monuments was chosen by the shamans of the village, able to "feel" the points of concentration of these currents. Even today, some characters claim that they "hear" these forces and can find burials even in the dark, driven by the release of mysterious energy.
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