As we arrived in Barumini, we first saw the ruins of Castello Las Plasas.
The ruins of this medieval fortress sit high atop one of the few hills in this land of flat, wide plains.
Excavations in Barumini have uncovered the largest Nuraghic fortress in Sardinia. The Sardinians have named it Su Nuraxi with the x pronounced like a g. The settlement dates back to 1500 B.C. during the Middle Bronze Age.
Built on a hill, the 62ft high fortress has clear views over the surrounding plains.
The fortress was made larger with the addition of 4 nuraghis connected by sentinels' walkways during the 7th century B.C. when there was threat of a Phoenician invasion.
The main tower is surrounded by smaller towers used to house sentinels who rotated in order to ensure that there was always a lookout protecting the village from invaders.
The inner rooms of the fortress were used to house the royal family and their guards. There is clear evidence such as large temples, a well, and warmer sleeping areas which show that an important family must have resided in the fortress.
The fortress is surrounded by a village built between the 8th-6th centuries B.C. which included about 200 homes housing hundreds of inhabitants. The area was inhabited for about 2,000 years.
Now we can see the remains of a bakery, flour mill and multi room dwelling - probably a home with a living area, space for worship and a courtyard.
Finally, there remains a large one room nuraghi most likely used for meetings of a tribal council. There is a tour group using the meeting room for a short break.
What makes the nuraghis so impressive is the building techniques using huge, irregular blocks of stone laid in dovetail fashion without mortar.
The inner walls of the fortress were reinforced with another wall of stone.
So these walls are 10 ft thick in some areas.
We learned that there about 1200 nuraghic fortresses in ruins like this one in Sardinia but no others surrounded by such a large, extensive village.
From here we headed to see wild, miniature horses, further proof that Sardinia is its own planet.
On this plateau covered in Joshua trees, we found the Cavallini del Giara.
After a hike across the plateau, we came upon a small herd of horses at their watering hole.
These small horses are native to Sardinia and exist primarily in the wild.
This plateau on which they live was converted into a nature preserve to ensure their continued existence.
The horses looked at us as if wondering why we were bombarding them with our flash. They seemed uneasy about our presence and slowly started moving away from us.
Here is a colt looking right at us.
I think he sees us looking at him through the cork trees. You can tell these are cork trees by looking at the barks which have been peeled away to make corks for wine bottles.
As you can see from this close up, the horses look like miniature versions of beautiful wild horses.
As we walked away, we realized, we were also being watched, from across the pond by this rather large bull. We're not sure how he fits into this nature preserve and we didn't want to find out.
No comments:
Post a Comment