A huge rock formation dominates the surrounding area in southern Spain, appearing to rise from the earth. A profile of a face peering up into the sky and the beginning of a torso make up the natural structure, which almost seems human.
Salutations from Antequera Despite being admired for 6,000 years, the landscape's beauty doesn't appear to have diminished.
According to research published on April 15 in the journal Antiquity, the Antequera site contains both man-made and "natural monuments," but its prehistoric megaliths are its most famous features.
Three stone buildings constructed between the third and fourth millennia B.C. are among the man-made monuments. According to the report, the megalithic structures are one reason Antequera is a UNESCO world heritage site.
La Pea de los Enamorados, a stone "sleeping giant" that rises nearly 2,900 feet above the earth, is one of the "natural monuments" in the location, according to academics.
But up until now, a secret was kept at this old monument site.
The Piedras Blancas megalithic grave, a previously undiscovered tomb, was discovered by archaeologists. From a distance, the tomb "resembles the chest of the sleeping giant,'" according to researchers.
According to the investigation, the rectangular stone building was built at least 5,000 years ago. Between 1950 and 1180 B.C., it was used in three different phases over a thousand years.
The placement of the stone slabs in the tomb was deliberate and timed "with the summer solstice sunrise," according to archaeologists. Some of the "heavily engraved" slabs "appear to have been precisely placed to 'funnel' the light from the rising sun towards the back of the chamber at the summer solstice."
The study claimed that a triangular, "arrow-like" stone pointed toward the morning sun and was mud-stuck to the chamber floor.
According to archaeologists, the tomb's original design had a stone platform where dead bodies were probably stacked. When the bodies were finally pushed off the platform and into the area behind it, 40 teeth and 95 bones were discovered by archaeologists. There were also offerings made to the tomb in the form of pottery urns.