Nuraghe Is Paras

Nuraghe Is Paras stands on the edge of Isili, in the Sarcidano uplands of central Sardinia, and from the outside it gives little away: a pale, compact mass of limestone on a rise looking west over open country. Its fame lies inside. The central tower holds a corbelled stone dome, a tholos, that rises 11.8 metres over a chamber about 12.5 metres across. It is the tallest tholos known in Nuragic Sardinia, and the archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu called it the largest and most harmonious of all the island's domes; among Bronze Age vaults of its kind in the Mediterranean, only the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae is usually ranked above it.

Standing beneath the dome is the whole point of a visit. The rings of stone narrow steadily towards a small opening at the top, each course laid slightly inward of the one below, with no mortar and no true arch. The white local limestone gives the interior an unusual brightness compared with the dark basalt nuraghi elsewhere on the island. A circular well lies at the centre of the floor, and a raised stair set into the wall once led to an upper chamber.

The main tower is thought to date to around the 15th century BC and began as a single freestanding tower. Over the following centuries it grew into a trilobate complex: a triangular bastion with towers at its corners enclosing a small courtyard, with further towers and an outer wall added later. Excavations began in the 1970s and have continued since; the surrounding Nuragic village remains largely unexcavated.

Getting there

The nuraghe lies just outside the village of Isili, beside the SS128 road, near the railway crossing at the locality of Is Paras. Sestu, on the outskirts of the Cagliari plain, is about 50 km to the south in a straight line, and Cagliari Elmas Airport (CAG) is about 55 km away; by road from Cagliari the route follows the SS131 north and then the SS128 through the Trexenta towards Isili. A car is the practical way to reach it.