During your holiday in Ogliastra don’t miss the opportunity to visit its wonderful Giants’ Tombs.

credits: Sardegna Turismo

Today Ogliastra, once perhaps the most isolated area of Sardinia, is witness to an extraordinary rebirth. Having gained international fame as the land of centenarians, endowed by nature with wonderful beaches and an often uncontaminated hinterland but which nevertheless has a first-rate wine offering, it is perhaps less known for another peculiarity: its Giants’ Tombs.

Its Nuragic heritage is already known.
In the Bronze Age, between 1,400 and 900 BC, this indigenous civilization had already developed structures such as the Nuraghe Arrubiu in Orroli, less than an hour’s drive from our Felix Hotels Galanias in Bari Sardo. Also known as the “Red Giant” due to the reddish lichens that cover part of it, the majestic complex of 21 towers had a main nuraghe as tall as a nine-storey building, and which still today is around 15 meters high.

Less known, but no less fascinating, is the story of its Giants’ Tombs.

These megalithic structures dating back to the Bronze Age and Iron Age were used as collective tombs to bury the dead.

Ogliastra is particularly rich in these mysterious structures.
In particular, they are in excellent condition and can be visited all year round:
– Triei – Osono
– Lanusei – Seleni
– Villagrande – Padru su Chiai
– Ilbono – Texere
– Tortolì – S’ortali’e su Monti

Generally located in a panoramic position and often close to Nuraghe (S’Ortali and su Monte are part of a nuragic park, Osono is located two kilometers from that of Bau Nuraxi), they all have a plant in common which attests to their cultural uniqueness.

Credits Wikipedia CC

The plan of the Giants’ Tombs is very particular, and seen from above it resembles the shape of a bull’s head. The facade is made up of stones inserted vertically into the ground, arranged in a semicircle. In the centre, the largest of them gives access to the actual tomb complex.
It is composed of large vertical stone slabs that form a rectangular or trapezoidal burial chamber, then covered by a single enormous horizontal covering slab, often inclined outwards.
Giants’ Tombs can vary greatly in size, but many are large enough to accommodate multiple bodies, with some reaching 30 meters in length.

An important part of the archaeological heritage of Sardinia, they describe the relationship with the death of the Nuragic civilization. In fact, although their primary purpose was to serve as collective burials, it is believed that the giants’ tombs also had a religious and cultural value. No less, their use for ritual or ceremonial purposes is quite clear.
The plan of these buildings recalls the bull. important animal for the Nuragic people because it symbolizes the male divinity and therefore could lead to a meaning of representation of strength and power. But the flat shape of the Giants’ Tombs also recalls the female organ. Death may therefore have been seen as the union of the mother goddess with the bull god, the union of the male and female reproductive principles for rebirth in the afterlife.
Unfortunately, the absence of written evidence and the end of the Nuragic language, supplanted by Latin of which current Sardinian is sometimes a very minimal derivation, leave a great unknown on the true symbolism behind the construction of these buildings over 3000 years old .

Where to stay to visit the Giants’ Tombs in Ogliastra?

We can offer our Felix Hotels Galanias Hotel&Retreat, a few kilometers from the locations seen above. It is located in Bari Sardo where nature and the sea have created a setting of uncontaminated beauty.

Structured on different levels sloping towards the garden, with a scenic swimming pool surrounded by olive trees, palms and Mediterranean plants.

The furnishings are in typical Sardinian style, traditional and refined, with furniture and upholstery fabrics carefully made by the skilled hands of Ogliastra craftsmen.

The restaurant offers, in addition to national cuisine, traditional local dishes, made with zero km products.

We sincerely hope to have given you useful information on the Giants’ Tombs in Ogliastra.

We instead await you at the Felix Hotels Galanias.
Until we meet again!