Dix menhirs alignés et le tertre tumulaire
MonumentHidden Treasure
Dix menhirs alignés et le tertre tumulaire, located in Carnac (Département 56), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Carnac, Département 56, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.6201, -3.0835
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00091125
In the heart of the Carnac peninsula, ten menhirs standing in silent rows and a tumulus mound bear witness to a Neolithic civilisation of astonishing sophistication, sculpting the Breton landscape for over 6,000 years.
History
Lost in the moors of the Morbihan peninsula, these ten aligned menhirs and their tumuli form one of the most intimate fragments of the gigantic Carnac megalithic jigsaw puzzle. Where the great alignments of Ménec or Kermario spread their hundreds of stones across the horizon, this small group invites you to experience something completely different: a direct, almost intimate encounter with the builders of the Neolithic period. Each menhir, carved from local granite with a bluish sheen, has a unique profile. Some stand tapering like fingers pointing skywards, while others droop slightly, covered in grey-green moss and lichen that give them a lively patina. The alignment of the stones - generally oriented west-east, typical of Carnacean complexes - suggests an astronomical intention linked to solar or lunar cycles, a subject still debated by researchers today. The tumulus mound that completes the ensemble is the real secret of this site. A mound of earth and dry stone with a gentle, rounded silhouette, it belongs to the large family of Neolithic funerary monuments found from Brittany to the British Isles. Its presence alongside the standing menhirs suggests a place of worship and remembrance, where communities from the 5th millennium BC came to honour their dead and mark their relationship with the cosmos. A visit to this discreet site offers a rare quality: silence. Away from the crowds of tourists who flock to the star alignments, you can walk freely around the stones, observing them in all their different lights and perceiving the secret logic behind their layout. At dawn or late afternoon, when the low-angled light lengthens the shadows and brings out the textures of the granite, the emotion is striking. The surrounding Breton setting - heather moors, oaks stunted by the sea breeze, an immense sky - amplifies the power of the place. Listed as a Historic Monument since 1940, this site is part of the Carnac megalithic constellation, one of the densest concentrations of megaliths in the world, and well worth a careful diversions.
Architecture
The ensemble is made up of two distinct but complementary elements. The ten menhirs form a row oriented broadly along a west-east axis, an arrangement characteristic of Carnac alignments and probably linked to the rising and setting of the sun at the solstices. The monoliths, carved from the local grey-blue granite, vary in height - from 0.8 metres to over 2.5 metres for the largest - and in cross-section, ranging from a flat, carved profile to a rough, barely roughed-out silhouette. The alternation of larger and smaller stones in the same alignment is a recurring feature of megalithic complexes in Morbihan, and suggests a deliberate decorative or symbolic intention. The burial mound, located in the immediate vicinity of the menhirs, is an oblong mound built by accumulating earth and dry stone blocks. This type of structure, sometimes referred to as a "long mound" in archaeological literature, has a humpback-shaped cross-section and may cover a burial chamber made of granite slabs - an architecture that is invisible from the outside but has been confirmed in similar monuments in the region. Its estimated length and modest height, now partially reduced by the erosion of the centuries, give it a discreet silhouette that contrasts with the assertive verticality of the neighbouring menhirs. The coherence of the ensemble - standing stone and funerary mound - reflects an overall architectural concept specific to Armorican Neolithic societies, which organised space by linking monuments to the living and the dead, astronomical landmarks and territorial markers into a coherent sacred geography.
Related Figures
James Miln — archéologue écossais, pionnier des fouilles à Carnac à partir de 1874Zacharie Le Rouzic — archéologue carnacéen, fondateur du Musée de Préhistoire de Carnac (1881) et catalogueur des mégalithesAlexander Thom — ingénieur et astronome britannique ayant étudié l'orientation astronomique des alignements carnacéens au XXe siècleSaint Cornély — figure légendaire chrétienne à laquelle la tradition populaire attribue la pétrification des soldats romains en menhirsProsper Mérimée — inspecteur général des Monuments historiques, précurseur de la protection du patrimoine mégalithique breton au XIXe siècle
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Dix menhirs alignés et le tertre tumulaire located?
Dix menhirs alignés et le tertre tumulaire is located in Carnac, Département 56 department, Bretagne region, France.
Is Dix menhirs alignés et le tertre tumulaire open to visitors?
Dix menhirs alignés et le tertre tumulaire is currently closed to visitors.
