Why this ride
A 138 km round trip from Málaga - roughly 2 h in the saddle. It goes by way of Antequera Dolmens Site, The Menga Dolmen and The Viera Dolmen, Tholos of El Romeral and La Peña de los Enamorados.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Málaga day out · La Peña de los Enamorados
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 138 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 25
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Málaga
Málaga has been a port for nearly three thousand years, founded by the Phoenicians and later ruled by Romans, Moors and Castilians, and the layers show if you look. At the foot of the hill, a Roman theatre lies right next to the Alcazaba, an eleventh-century Moorish fortress-palace whose gardens and fountains climb the slope. Above it a ruined castle called Gibralfaro crowns the summit, linked by a walled path, and the view from its ramparts over the harbour, the bullring and the blue Mediterranean is the best in the city. The painter Pablo Picasso was born here in 1881, and a museum in a Renaissance palace in the old town holds a large collection of his work.
Read the complete Malaga write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Málaga is where the day begins. Next is Antequera Dolmens Site.
2. Antequera Dolmens Site
A visitor's centre, some car parks, a long low mound and a view across a plain of wheat: the Antequera dolmens site does not look like much from the approach road, and then you step inside Menga and your sense of proportion rearranges itself. This stop is the formal gateway to the complex, a mile or so from the old town, and from here you can see the shape of the landscape that the prehistoric builders chose, with the strange rocky mountain called the Peña de los Enamorados rising to the northeast.
Read the complete Antequera Dolmens Site write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Antequera Dolmens Site comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Menga Dolmen and The Viera Dolmen.
3. The Menga Dolmen and The Viera Dolmen
Antequera sits in the middle of Andalusia like a coin in a pocket, and the two great dolmens stand on its northern edge, barely more than a kilometre from the centre. Menga and Viera were built more than five thousand years ago by farming people who dragged enormous blocks of stone into place, and Menga is one of the biggest megalithic chambers in Europe, with a roof of slabs that weigh many tonnes each. You walk into a long corridor of stone, with a mound of earth above, and the scale of it hits you before any explanation does.
Read the complete The Menga Dolmen and The Viera Dolmen write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
At least about 51 km into the recorded legs you reach The Menga Dolmen and The Viera Dolmen. Next is Tholos of El Romeral.
4. Tholos of El Romeral
Just outside Antequera, a low grassy mound hides one of Europe's more unusual prehistoric chambers. The Tholos of El Romeral is a Bronze Age burial, roughly four thousand years old, built from carefully fitted stone slabs that rise in a corbelled dome above a long entrance corridor. Unlike its neighbours, the huge Neolithic dolmens of Menga and Viera, it uses a dry-stone technique closer to what you find in the eastern Mediterranean, so archaeologists argue about where the builders learned it. All three belong to the Antequera Dolmens Site, listed by UNESCO in 2016 partly because the landscape itself seems to be part of the design.
Read the complete Tholos of El Romeral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Tholos of El Romeral, about halfway. Next is La Peña de los Enamorados.
5. La Peña de los Enamorados
Planning note
La Peña de los Enamorados sits at 58 km, about halfway. Next is back through Tholos of El Romeral.
6. back through Tholos of El Romeral
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tholos of El Romeral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Tholos of El Romeral comes up about 80 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through The Menga Dolmen and The Viera Dolmen.
7. back through The Menga Dolmen and The Viera Dolmen
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Menga Dolmen and The Viera Dolmen write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 84 km into the recorded legs you reach back through The Menga Dolmen and The Viera Dolmen. Next is back through Antequera Dolmens Site.
8. back through Antequera Dolmens Site
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Antequera Dolmens Site write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Antequera Dolmens Site, late in the day. Next is Malaga.
9. Málaga
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Malaga write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 138 km.
Leg by leg
Málaga to Antequera Dolmens Site
Málaga → Antequera Dolmens Site is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tholos of El Romeral to La Peña de los Enamorados
Tholos of El Romeral → La Peña de los Enamorados is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Peña de los Enamorados to back through Tholos of El Romeral
La Peña de los Enamorados → back through Tholos of El Romeral is 7 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Antequera Dolmens Site to Malaga
back through Antequera Dolmens Site → Malaga is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Málaga afternoon · Tholos of El Romeral · 150 km
- Ronda day out · Tholos of El Romeral · 248 km
- Grazalema and Zahara Loop · 84 km