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Dolmen de La Giganta (El Chopo or La Giganta Dolmen)

Diputación de Málaga
Dolmen del Chopo, Montecorto

Dolmen de La Giganta (El Chopo or La Giganta Dolmen)

Zip Code 29430
Archaelogical Sites > Dolmen

Dolmens in the region of Ronda are of the gallery type. They form corridors that lead to a burial chamber containing remains. They date from the end of the Neolithic period to the beginning of the Copper Age.

El Chopo dolmen, named after the terrains of the Chopo Ranch is also known as the Giant tomb (Sepulcro del Gigante). The road that leads to it is the regional road Ronda-Algodonales, close to the crossroad at Grazalema. The dolmen is inside a private and closed country property, one kilometre away from the intersection. The property’s fence protects it, but it is possible to get closer from the outside.

It is a large passage tomb, with a long corridor and one tall chamber slightly differentiated from the passage. The walls of the hall are rather high, and their original form was probably similar to that of the dolmen in Menga, yet smaller. The burial mound completely disappeared and many of the orthostates are damaged.

As well as in Buendía or Gorafe, this dolmen lies on a small plateau, which is close to a cliff that leads to an adjacent valley. It is thought that, further down, there was a settlement next to the river.

The tombs were placed on the sides of the valley, at the visible place for visitors. This is typical for Andalusian’s dolmens.

El Chopo Dolmen is defined as a megalithic tomb with a trapezoidal chamber and straight sidewalls, which are slightly curved at the entrance and are inclined towards it. It has ten orthostates (vertical squared stone blocks, which can be decorated or not, and that are usually built into the lower portion of a wall) forming sidewalls and the straight main standing stone with a perpendicular orthostat placed behind the lateral ones. The tomb is a maximum of 1.2 m wide (main standing stone), and minimum 0.60 m (the entrance). It is 8.5 m long, 2.20 m high at its highest conserved point, and 0.80 m high at the lowest point.

Only one flat horizontal capstone (table) still exists. It is close to the main stone and moved to the left side. The material used for the orthostates is Jurassic limestone from this area.

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