The Viera Dolmen

The Viera Dolmen is a corridor tomb consisting of a long passage divided into two sections, at the end of which there is a square chamber entered through a square door cut into the first stone. Built in the same way as Menga, with an orthostatic technique (large upright stones), it has an interior length of more than twenty-one metres. If evidence gleaned from the excavation of its entrance is considered, this length could be increased to twenty-two metres, if we take into account the size of the stone covering the chamber and the probable size of that which covered the outer access. It has a fairly regular interior width of between 1.3 metres at the beginning and 1.6 metres at the burial chamber end. Each side of the sepulchre must have been made up of 16 upright stones, of which 14 are preserved on the left side and 15 on the right.

The far end is enclosed by a single slab. Of the roof, five full slabs remain, as well as fragments of two others. We can also surmise that there were three or perhaps even four more, although they have long since disappeared. The average interior height is a little more than two metres. The tomb is covered by a fifty-metre-diameter tumulus and faces east, slightly to the southeast (96º azimuth), following the standard pattern of Iberian megaliths.

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