Menhirs of Padrão

The Menhirs of Padrão are a group of fifteen megalithic menhirs located in the municipality of Vila do Bispo, in the Faro District of the Algarve region of Portugal. It is believed that they originally formed a large cromlech, or stone circle. An alternative interpretation is that they served as territorial possession markers. Evidence suggests that the site was more or less continuously occupied from the time of construction in around 4500 BCE, to the end of Muslim occupation of Portugal in the middle of the 13th century CE.