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Located near Antequera in Malaga (Andalucia, Spain), Menga is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site consisting of three dolmens constructed between 3800 – 3600 BC. It is one of the largest megalithic structures in Europe and was built on the top of a hill with giant rocks. It is renowned for its enormous orthostats or vertical stones, one of which weighs nearly 150 tons...Using petrographic and stratigraphic analysis techniques, the researchers discovered most of the stones were calcarenites... The researchers write in their paper that moving and building a dolmen from such large, massive but fragile stones would require...

(Reuters) - Hundreds of unemployed Spaniards who had walked hundreds of kilometres (miles) to Madrid joined protests on Saturday against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government and its handling of an economic crisis. Demonstrations have swollen across Spain since the centre-right government announced 65 billion euros in new spending cuts two weeks ago to cut its deficit and avert a full-blown bailout, with firefighters and police joining a mass protest on Thursday. Several hundred people journeyed on foot from the southern region of Andalucia, which has one of the worst unemployment rates in Spain, and from northern Catalonia and other areas...

Iberia looms large in Islamist ambitions and regrets, writes Isambard Wilkinson in Madrid. Thursday's bombings have raised an uncomfortable question for Spaniards. Is Osama bin Laden dreaming of exacting revenge for the loss of Al-Andalus, the ancient Moorish kingdom in Iberia? A group said to be close to bin Laden's al-Qaeda, the Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri, sent a message to a London-based Arabic newspaper saying: "This is part of settling old accounts with Spain, the crusader and America's ally in its war against Islam." While the authenticity of the message is open to doubt, there is no question that...

July 15 2003 Headline: New mosque signals 'return of Islam' to Spain -- Detail Story GRANADA :It is more than 500 years since the Spanish reconquered the Iberian peninsula, killing or expelling every confessed Muslim who could be found and conclusively ending 800 years of Islamic rule. But on Thursday, a "muezzin" (Man who calls for prayers) is calling Spanish Muslims to pray at the first mosque to be opened in Granada since the reconquista, the culmination of a 22-year-old project that has been plagued by controversy. For those who built the Great Mosque of Granada, which looks out onto...

Spain Opens First Mosque in 500 Years Thursday July 10, 2003 2:39 PM By DANIEL WOOLLS Associated Press Writer GRANADA, Spain (AP) - An imam recited verses from the Quran on Thursday as the former seat of Moorish rule in Spain unveiled its first mosque in more than 500 years. Dignitaries from Arab and Muslim countries worldwide attended the opening of the Great Mosque of Granada for prayer, crowning a fitful and emotionally charged project that began in 1981. The hilltop mosque commands a sweeping vista of one of history's prime pieces of real estate: the Alhambra, the reddish 14th-century...

After a wait of more than 500 years, Spanish Muslims have finally succeeded in building a mosque of their own in the shadow of the Alhambra, once the symbol of Islamic power in Europe. The opening, by Muslim and Spanish officials on Thursday, will be rich in symbolism. As Al-Jazeera television broadcasts the event live, a muezzin will climb the minaret of Granada's Great Mosque and call the faithful to prayer for the first time in half a millennium. It is, say its builders, the symbol of the revival of Islam in Europe and Spain's "glorious Islamic heritage". For that...