Just 90 minutes before airport check-in time and I was paying to get in to Trepuco, cutting it a bit short but as it's so close to the airport I just had to. It had been raining all day but it just made me feel more at home, besides there were plenty of places to shelter from the rain, The cave is just a few metres beyond the kiosk/shed, and the giant talaiot is a good wind-break, but the best place to stand was under the taula. It's not the most intact of poblats some of it even off bounds, and even though half of the taula sanctuary is concreted in place it was still well worth the entry fee (2 euros i think), and before long I was getting a phone call from the car,it was time to go.
But Menorca just kept on giving, even on the runway we could still see Toellonet talaiot.http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/67507/images/torrellonet.html
After a busy day snorkelling at Binidali beach we took an early evening excursion out to see Trepuco (see pages 326 and 327 of TME) poblat on the southern outskirts of Mahón, Menorca's capital where mayonnaise may have been invented in 1756 to commemorate a victory over the English who were holding a castle in Mahón - hence 'mahonnaise'.... I digress.
The site at Trepuco is dominated by two gargantuan monuments – the mammoth talaiot tower and most sublime taula sanctuary. The talaiot was probably the biggest I saw on the island, about 8 metres tall and at least 12 metres in diameter, possibly more. I was a bit spooked when Moth started climbing it, but he took it slowly and was rewarded with great views. But the taula captivated me completely.
Glowing yellow in the evening sunlight and thin like rice paper, the great stone is carved on the front as if Canadian cheddar cut with a serrated knife. On top of this impossibly thin slab of something you'd put in yer butty, a bloody great grey horned block is somehow held aloft. I was in awe.
I should also mention the setting of this ancient cheesy wonder as it follows an approximate pattern of most taula sanctuaries.
The T stone usually stands roughly centrally in a horseshoe-shaped enclosed wall, built using giant stones. Many of these are tall pillars which appear to mark out chambers or spaces. The front, or approach end, always the only way in, is usually a very shallow concave forecourt with a clear entry point. Whatever happened in these ritual places, they were not public affairs. The space is intimate and the walls originally too tall to see over. These taula sanctuaries usually stand within just a few metres of a talaiot. And from the top of most talaiots you can see El Toro, Menorca's centrally-placed sacred hill (now hijacked by Jesus, his mum and some nuns.)
All this is the case at Trepuco. We stayed here for some time so I could make some studies. It was sublime.
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