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Su Nuraxi

A dry-stone tower complex from the second millennium BC in central Sardinia, one of seven thousand nuraghi on the island.

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Illustrative image - a scene in the spirit of the place, not a photograph of it. Real photos are below.

UNESCO World Heritage

Typearchaeological site

WhereSardinia

Nearest cityBarumini

Best seasonApril to June, September to October

Time to allowHalf a day

Getting thereAt Barumini in central Sardinia, about an hour north of Cagliari

EntryCharged; guided visits only

Sardinia has around seven thousand nuraghi, conical dry-stone towers built between roughly 1800 and 700 BC by a culture that left no writing and about which a great deal remains unclear. Su Nuraxi at Barumini is the largest and most complex, and the only one with a World Heritage listing: a central tower of three storeys surrounded by four more linked by a wall, with a village of round stone huts crowded around the base. It was buried under a mound until excavation in the 1950s. The corbelled interior chambers, built without mortar and still standing after three thousand years, are the thing to see.

What you actually see

The central tower - three corbelled storeys of dry stone, still standing.
The four-tower bastion - the linked outer towers and connecting wall.
The village - round stone huts crowded around the base.
The corbelling - built without mortar and intact after three millennia.

When to go

April to June and September to October; central Sardinia in summer is very hot and the site is exposed. Entry is by guided tour only, at set times, which are more frequent in high season. Half a day covers the site and the nearby museum.

Honest expectations

Access is by guided tour only and tours are mostly in Italian, with English departures limited and worth checking. The site is exposed with no shade. Interpretation of the Nuragic civilisation is genuinely uncertain and guides sometimes state contested theories as fact. It is an hour from Cagliari with little public transport.