ICOMOS supports the candidacy ‘Menorca Talayótica’ for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List

The favourable report of the International Committee of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), although not binding, represents important support for registration

The Ministry of Culture and Sport has received the report of the International Committee of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), consultative body of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention on Cultural Property, with the recommendation for the inscription on the World Heritage List of the candidacy ‘Menorca Talayótica. An island’s Cyclopean odyssey’.

ICOMOS considers that the proposal has proven to have an “exceptional universal value”, a key concept to be included in this prestigious cast, and meets the necessary requirements of integrity and authenticity.

The candidacy, promoted by the Consell de Menorca with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Sport, was presented for the first time to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in 2017.

On that occasion, the file was not evaluated positively and had to be reviewed and expanded. Its presentation took place again in 2021, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prevented the Committee meeting scheduled for the following year from being held in the Russian city of Kazan. Once the situation has been unblocked, the next meeting of the UNESCO Evaluation Committee will be held in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 10 to 25 September this year. In it, according to the favorable reports with which the candidacy counts, the declaration of ‘Menorca Talayótica’ could be made effective.

A window into prehistoric island cultures

The archaeological sites of Menorca bear witness to the occupation of the island by prehistoric communities. These sites show a wide variety of prehistoric settlements and burial sites. The materials and structures dating from the Bronze Age (1600 B.C.) to the Final Iron Age (123 B.C.) show the evolution of a ‘cyclopean’ architecture built with large stone blocks, and of a spatial organization suggesting the emergence of a hierarchical society.

Distintas orientaciones astronómicas e interconexiones visuales entre estructuras prehistóricas indican la existencia de redes con posibles significados cosmológicos. Taken together, these archaeological sites and their associated landscapes provide a window into the prehistoric island cultures of this western Mediterranean region.

Among these characteristic cyclopean structures are the hypogees (artificial caves), the talayots (large conical structures, generally truncated), the taulas (T-shaped constructions formed by a large rectangular slab of supporting stone and an inverted and truncated pyramidal capitel), the taula enclosures (religious enclosures structures composed of absidal plant and concave facade), navetas (which have the shape of an inverted nave and in some cases rounded plants), and circular houses and hypostiles (ceilings supported by pillars).

The inclusion of ‘Talayotic Menorca’ in the World Heritage List would make it the good number fifty of those declared World Heritage in Spain, which makes our country one of the most recognized internationally for the variety, wealth and quality of our heritage.