What to see · Olbia

More places of interest

• Tomba dei Giganti Su Monte e S'Abe

  The giants' tomb of Su Mont'e s'Abe is an archaeological site in the territory of Olbia, along the road to Loiri. Among the several giants' tombs in the area it is the one the sources single out and, like others in Gallura, it was built in two main phases.

  What to see

  In the first phase, during the Bonnanaro culture of the Early Bronze Age, an allée couverte tomb, that is a covered gallery grave, was built. In the second, in the Nuragic age, around 1600 BC, the burial was turned into a giants' tomb with the construction of the exedra, the semicircular space in front of the entrance, and of the central stele, of which few traces remain today.

  The tomb is about twenty-eight metres long and six wide and was excavated and restored in the sixties. In the territory of Olbia, from the Middle Bronze Age onwards, Nuragic settlements multiplied: more than fifty are known today, including single-tower nuraghi, hut villages, sacred wells and megalithic burials like this one.

  Visiting

  The site is along the road from Olbia to Loiri. The sources consulted give no hours, tickets or access arrangements: check them before going.

  Our editors' tip

  In the same territory is the sacred well of Sa Testa, near the road to Golfo Aranci, dated between 1200 and 1000 BC and still studied today for its structure and shape.

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