The main attraction in Gorafe is this collection of 240 Neolithic dolmens distributed in 10 different cemeteries. It is the richest collection of prehistoric burial mounds of Spain.
The reason for this abundance is that the natural hollow formed by the stream of Gor was very populous in Prehistoric times. It marked the eastern border between tribal groups and the people of southern Andalucía who occupied this area in the 5th millennium BC.
The Neolithic populations that settled here formed a complex, hierarchical society with an economy based on agriculture. They lived in houses dug out from the hills or in stone buildings with roofs made of branches. They buried their dead inside these dolmens.
Of the 240 dolmens a total of 198 have been studied in detail and catalogued. They are located on both sides of the Río Gor valley, and distributed in groups in an area of over ten kilometres. Because of the sheer volume, most are not known by name but by the numbers given by the archaeologists. The diversity of the structures is also of great interest as they come in many shapes: trapezoidal, pentagonal, rectangular, square and polygonal.
The dolmens were built about 5,000 years ago. Excavations have found a number of artefacts (religious figurines, necklaces, flint knives, pottery fragments, etc.) that reveal that a large number of these tombs were used from the late Neolithic period (2800-2600 BC) and into the Copper Age (2400-2200 BC).
The Centro de Interpretación del Megalitismo de Gorafe is a great place to learn more about this site and its importance.
