Santo Antine: one of the largest nurags in Sardinia

In the Italian municipality of Torralba, on the island of Sardinia, there is an ancient megalith called Santo Antine. The name of the building translates as "The king's house". Megalith is one of the largest nuraghs on the island. Nuragi are structures in the form of stone towers with thick walls and small rooms. About 8 thousand nurags have been discovered in Sardinia, according to various estimates, their number in ancient times reached 20-30 thousand.

The main part of Santo Antine was built in the XIX-XVIII centuries BC, some parts appeared later, in the XVII–XV centuries BC , the building is one of the oldest dated nuraghs. The height of the main tower was originally 24 meters. The structure consisted of three levels, only the first two floors have survived to this day. Inside, there are corridors that reach a length of 27 meters. Nearby there are the remains of a settlement that belonged to the Nuragic culture, which existed here before the Roman colonization.

Santa Antine was studied from the point of view of archaeoastronomy, which examines the ideas of ancient people about astronomical phenomena. It turned out that the nurag device is connected with the solstices. The population of the Nuragic culture belonged to sun worshippers, like most of the population of Western Europe in the III-II thousand BC. The entrance to the building is located on the south side, the staircase inside the structure leads clockwise to the second floor. The ruins of rectangular houses of the Roman period next to the remains of older huts suggests that Santa Antine could have been used after the Nuragic period.