Midsummer monument: the sacred stones of Portugal's Stonehenge

4/4.

Two thousand years older than the Wiltshire stone circle, the Cromlech of the Almendres is one of the largest megalithic sites in Europe – and it's perfectly positioned to celebrate the solstice

...  The Cromlech of the Almendres is only 15km west of Evora, down a maze of unmade lanes in a forest of cork trees. In spring, the open fields that surround it are a carpet of wild flowers and on midsummer’s day, 21 June, people come here to celebrate the solstice. It’s not on the scale of the New Age events at Stonehenge – there’s no visitor centre and no amenities, just a lovely feeling of being in a sacred grove of stones. [...] The Independent