During the 3rd millennium BC, a 10 hectare stretch of land, located at the end of a once navigable part of the Torre River became the centre of settlement.

[2] During the 1990s, excavation of the monument and limestone sub-soils of Monte de Canelas was undertaken, resulting in the discovery that the space was used as ossuary, where various rituals were completed, mostly in the deceased buried in the fetal position.

[2] On 23 October 1998, under the auspices of the Programa de Salvaguarda e Valorização do Conjunto Pré-histórico de Alcalar (Program for the Safeguarding and Valorization of the Pre-historic monuments of Alcalar), Dispatch 18 364/98, (published in the Diário da República, Series 2, 245), the State proceeded to expropriate the rural buildings in the centre of the civil parish of Mexilhoeira Grande (under article 160, secção J).

[2] The Interpretative Centre was transferred, on 1 March 2012, from the management of the Direção Regional de Cultura do Algarve (DCRAlg) to a partnership with the municipal government of Portimão, becoming a nucleus of the local museum: it was, therefore, closed on for construction and rehabilitation.

Due to its monumental character, Tholos 7 (which was built in the third millennium) constitutes an undeniable histo-cultural and scientific centre of the site, including its quantity of artifacts unearthed.