What Is A Nuraghe?


A Nuraghe is a huge cone-like tower made up of giant stones, more than 7,000 have been discovered encompassing the whole of Sardinia but more concentrated on the west of the island. This equates to one Nuraghi to every five square kilometers. They are hard to miss when you travel through the countryside, almost lining up on the train journey through the island.

a nuraghi in a green meadow on a hill

The Greeks were so impressed with the beauty and strength that they even tried to claim the Nuraghi as one of their own accomplishments, as to begin the work of a legendary Athenian architect Daedalus. It was the Nuragic Civilisation who constructed these megalithic structures, little is known and all that remains are Nuraghi and stunning bronze figurines.

To give you an understanding of the size of some of these megalithic moments – here is a photograph of me attempting to climb a nuraghe on the outskirts of Perfugas in the north of Sardinia, I never made it to the top. But you can see the true sizes of the stones (I’m just under 6 feet) You can only imagine the amount of work it took to build these monuments and we can only guess at the circumstances that required such structures.

Below is a well-made video, that takes you on a tour of the Nuraghi of Barymini. In this video, you can understand the scale and range of these magnificent monuments.

Jason Matthew Warland

Sardinia is a place beyond time. I visited the island for the first time over five years ago to volunteer on a farm. Now, I am living in the United Kingdom, working in regenerative agriculture (biodynamictrainee.com) but every time I have a holiday it will be in Sardinia. And maybe one day I will be able to combine my passions for agriculture and Sardinia together once again. Thanks for reading the article I hope it was useful to you.

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