Fifty enclaves. And one of the five countries in the world with the most registrations. Spain has just achieved its 50th inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage list thanks to the prehistoric talayots of Menorca. The Menorca Talayotic candidacy. A cyclopean island odyssey has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. With this new registration.
The candidacy, promoted by the Consell Insular de Menorca and which has had the support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the government of the Balearic Islands, has achieved success after more than a decade of maturation. Menorca registers one of the highest densities in the world of prehistoric archaeological sites in inhabited territory. And the candidacy now registered by UNESCO brings together the nine components that best represent the constructions, from talayots to navetas, of an island culture that evolved in conditions of relative isolation.
From the mid-Bronze Age to the Roman occupation, the nomination has selected a sample of prehistoric monuments and sites, including settlements, funerary spaces, sanctuaries and sacred places that have survived in excellent condition. Among them, exceptional manifestations unique and exclusive to Menorca stand out, such as the burial naves, the taula enclosures, the monumental circular houses and the talayots.
Furthermore, ‘Talayotic Menorca’ provides exceptional testimony of a prehistoric culture associated with the sky. The orientations of certain monuments allow us to illustrate the relationship of this culture with the sky. Another feature that guarantees its exceptionality is the coexistence that the various cyclopean constructions on the island have developed throughout history with its inhabitants.
The monuments are inserted in a little altered Mediterranean landscape with features very similar to that of Prehistory. The successive stone traditions, the original settlement patterns and the spiritual functionality of the monuments are the reflection of their own identity and remain alive in the landscape of today’s Menorca, constituting an exceptional case of a living archaeological and monumental landscape.
At the meeting of the UNESCO Committee, ancient Jericho, also called Tell es-Sultan, presented by Palestine, and the Odzala-Kokoua forest massif, in the Congo, were declared World Heritage Sites.
