English and the World · Spain · 24 · Málaga province · A1–C2 · Free
Three tombs more than five thousand years old, stones weighing hundreds of tonnes, and a builder’s choice that still puzzles archaeologists: why Menga faces a mountain instead of the sun. Choose your level.
Antequera, north of Málaga
Near the town of Antequera there are three very old stone monuments: the dolmens of Menga and Viera, and El Romeral. People built them more than 5,000 years ago. They are tombs: places for the dead.
Menga is the biggest. It is about 27 metres long. The stones are enormous: together they weigh 835 tonnes! Inside, it is dark and cool, and there is a very deep well.
The builders covered the dolmens with earth, so from outside they look like small hills. In 2016 they became a World Heritage Site.
A visit with a guide
Child: How did they move the stones?
Guide: Nobody knows for sure. Maybe they used wood, ropes and a lot of people.
Child: Did they have machines?
Guide: No, they didn’t. They didn’t have metal tools either.
Child: Why did they build the door this way?
Guide: Look outside! The door of Menga looks at a mountain with the shape of a face: the Peña de los Enamorados, the “Rock of the Lovers”.
Child: Wow! Where did the stones come from?
Guide: Probably from the hills near here.
The answers are short and simple: for more detail, see the B1–B2 and C1–C2 versions.
Language: past simple questions
| Type | How | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Yes / no questions | Did + subject + verb? | Did they have machines? No, they didn’t. |
| Wh- questions | How / Why / Where / When + did + subject + verb? | How did they move the stones? |
| Questions with “be” | Was / Were + subject…? | Were the stones heavy? Yes, they were. |
⚠️ After did, use the base verb: Did they move…? not ✗ Did they moved…?
Read the texts first. Press “Check my answers” at the end.
Choose the best answer.
1. What are the dolmens?
2. What do the dolmens look like from outside?
3. What does the door of Menga look at?
4. Did the builders have machines?
Write the missing word.
5. How they move the stones?
6. Did they (move) the stones with ropes?
7. the stones very heavy?
8. Where the stones come from?
Write the short answer.
9. Did they have metal tools? No, they .
10. Was Menga the biggest? Yes, it .
11. Did they cover the dolmens with earth? Yes, they .
12. Were the dolmens houses? No, they .
Go there!
Where: Menga and Viera are just outside Antequera, about 45 minutes from Málaga. El Romeral is a few kilometres away. Check opening times before you go. Near Antequera you can also walk in El Torcal, a strange landscape of rocks.
Your task: write six questions for a guide at an old place you would like to visit, with did, was and were.
Older than the pyramids
The dolmens of Antequera were built centuries before the great pyramids of Egypt. We know a lot about them, but many questions remain open: how they were built, what ceremonies took place inside them, and why one of them faces a mountain instead of the sunrise.
Read the two texts, then do the practice.
The Antequera Dolmens Site
The site, declared a World Heritage Site on 15 July 2016, includes three monuments and two natural landmarks. The dolmens of Menga and Viera were built in the Neolithic period, more than five thousand years ago; the tholos of El Romeral, with its round, dome-like chamber, belongs to the later Copper Age. All three were covered with earth mounds, so that from outside they looked like natural hills.
Menga is one of the largest dolmens in Europe: about 27.5 metres long, with 25 upright stones, 5 capstones and 3 pillars weighing 835 tonnes in all. Inside it there is a deep well. Most unusually, Menga does not face the sunrise, as most dolmens do. It faces the Peña de los Enamorados, a mountain whose profile looks like a human face lying down. El Romeral, in turn, faces the mountains of El Torcal. Only Viera has the usual orientation towards the rising sun.
What we still don’t know
Archaeologists can tell us when the dolmens were built, roughly, but nobody can say exactly how the builders moved stones of more than a hundred tonnes without metal tools or wheels. We can guess why Menga faces the mountain, perhaps because it was sacred, but we don’t know what its builders believed. Researchers also wonder whether the well was part of the original design and what it was used for.
Modern Antequera has had its own question to answer: how it could build a new museum without spoiling the ancient view. When UNESCO considered the site, the new building was reduced in height, so that it would not block the view of the Peña de los Enamorados.
Language: indirect questions
| Direct question | Indirect question |
|---|---|
| How did they move the stones? | Nobody knows how they moved the stones. |
| Why does Menga face the mountain? | I wonder why Menga faces the mountain. |
| Was the well part of the design? | Researchers ask whether / if the well was part of the design. |
| What did they believe? | We don’t know what they believed. |
| Where is El Romeral? | Could you tell me where El Romeral is? |
⚠️ In indirect questions there is no do / does / did and no question order: I wonder why it faces…, not ✗ I wonder why does it face….
Fact or not sure?
| Statement | Status | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Menga and Viera are more than five thousand years old | Fact | All sources agree, though exact dates vary. |
| El Romeral was built in about 2500 BC | Not sure | Sources give about 2500 or about 1800 BC. |
| The heaviest stone in Menga weighs 180 tonnes | Not sure | Sources give “over 150” or 180 tonnes. |
| Menga faces the Peña de los Enamorados | Fact | Confirmed by archaeoastronomers. |
Read both texts first. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
Choose the best answer.
1. What does the World Heritage Site include?
2. Why did the dolmens look like natural hills?
3. What is unusual about Menga’s orientation?
4. Which dolmen has the usual orientation?
5. Why was the new museum made lower?
6. What is a tholos?
Complete the indirect question.
7. How did they move the stones? → Nobody knows how the stones.
8. Why does Menga face the mountain? → I wonder why the mountain.
9. Was the well part of the design? → Researchers ask the well was part of the design.
10. What did they believe? → We don’t know what .
11. Where is El Romeral? → Could you tell me where ?
12. What time does the site open? → Do you know what time ?
Choose the best answer.
13. Which is correct?
14. Which is the most polite question for a guide?
15. Which is correct?
16. Which needs “whether” or “if”?
Where do these words come from?
17. Megalith joins two Greek words. What do they mean?
18. Neolithic means…
19. Tholos is a Greek word for…
A day in Antequera
Route: Menga and Viera, just outside Antequera (stand in Menga’s doorway and look for the face in the Peña de los Enamorados) → El Romeral, a few kilometres away → the town of Antequera and its Alcazaba → El Torcal, for a walk among the rocks. Check opening times before you go.
Your task: write ten questions you would like to ask the builders of Menga, then rewrite them as indirect questions: I’d love to know…, I wonder…, Nobody knows…
The Neolithic and the Copper Age
Inscribed as a World Heritage Site on 15 July 2016, the Antequera Dolmens Site is unusual in that it pairs three monuments with the two natural landmarks towards which they appear to have been oriented. The dolmens of Menga and Viera, built in the Neolithic, and the later tholos of El Romeral, a Copper Age tomb with a corbelled dome, were all buried under earth mounds; from outside they would have resembled natural hills, which may well have been the intention.
Menga is the most striking. Its 25 uprights, 5 capstones and 3 pillars weigh some 835 tonnes in total, and a deep well was found inside it. Most megaliths in Europe are aligned on the sun; Menga is aligned instead on the Peña de los Enamorados, a mountain whose profile suggests a recumbent human face, while El Romeral faces the ranges of El Torcal. Viera alone follows the solar convention. It is conceivable that the builders regarded these mountains as sacred, and the alignments would seem to suggest as much, but there is no direct evidence of what they believed; we have the architecture, not the theology.
Hedging the past
Dating is where caution matters most. Published estimates for Menga range across several centuries of the fourth millennium BC, and for El Romeral from around 2500 to around 1800 BC. The heaviest single stone is described as weighing “over 150” or 180 tonnes. Such disagreements presumably reflect different methods and different moments of research, and they should be reported rather than resolved by choosing the most impressive figure.
How the stones were moved is likely to remain a matter of reconstruction: sledges, rollers, ropes and organised labour are generally assumed, though the details are open to debate. Modern Antequera, meanwhile, has learned that heritage concerns the setting as well as the stones: the town’s new museum was reduced in height when UNESCO examined the nomination, so as not to interrupt the sightline to the Peña. Arguably, that decision honoured the builders’ intentions better than any reconstruction could.
Language: hedging and speculation in academic writing
| What we do | How | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Strong probability | may well / are likely to + verb | That may well have been the intention. |
| Possibility, cautiously | It is conceivable / possible that… | It is conceivable that they regarded the mountains as sacred. |
| Soften a conclusion | would seem to / appear to | The alignments would seem to suggest as much. |
| Mark the limits of evidence | There is no (direct) evidence that / of… | There is no direct evidence of what they believed. |
| A reasonable assumption | presumably, are generally assumed | The disagreements presumably reflect different methods. |
| Own judgement, signalled | arguably, it could be argued that | Arguably, the decision honoured the builders. |
Evidence and debate
| Claim | What we can say |
|---|---|
| Menga faces the Peña de los Enamorados | Established by archaeoastronomical study. |
| The builders considered the mountains sacred | A reasonable inference; no direct evidence. |
| El Romeral dates from about 2500 BC | Sources disagree (about 2500 or about 1800 BC). |
| The heaviest stone weighs 180 tonnes | Sources give “over 150” or 180 tonnes. |
Debate: Should protecting a monument include protecting its view? How far should a modern town’s development be limited for the sake of an ancient landscape?
Read both texts first. Press “Check my answers” at the end.
Choose the best answer.
1. “We have the architecture, not the theology.” What does the writer mean?
2. What does the writer recommend doing with disagreements about dates?
3. Why is the alignment of Menga “most striking”?
4. What has modern Antequera learned, according to the writer?
5. How certain is the writer about how the stones were moved?
6. Which word signals the writer’s own judgement in the last sentence?
Write the missing word.
7. That may have been the intention. (strong probability)
8. It is that they regarded the mountains as sacred.
9. There is no direct of what they believed.
10. The alignments would to suggest as much.
11. How the stones were moved is to remain a matter of reconstruction.
12. The disagreements reflect different methods. (a reasonable assumption)
Choose the best answer.
13. Which is the most appropriate in an academic article?
14. Which is overhedged, and therefore weak?
15. Which statement needs NO hedging?
16. “There is no evidence that they used wheels.” What does it NOT mean?
Where do these words come from?
17. Orientation comes from Latin oriens. What was the oriens?
18. Monument comes from Latin monere. What did it mean?
19. Hedge, as in “to hedge a statement”, first meant…
A day in Antequera
Visit: Menga and Viera (stand in Menga’s doorway and find the face in the Peña), El Romeral, the town and its Alcazaba, and El Torcal. Check opening times before you go.
Write (220–260 words): a short academic-style paragraph on an archaeological mystery of your choice, matching each claim to the strength of its evidence. Use at least six hedging devices, and one fact stated with no hedging at all.