Ses Païsses

Ses Païsses is a Bronze Age talayotic settlement on the southeastern outskirts of Artà in northeastern Majorca.

It is one of the most important and best-preserved prehistoric sites in the Balearic Islands, although it is largely overgrown with woodland, mainly Quercus ilex (holm oak).

The Ses Païsses settlement is thought to have begun as a cylindrical talaiot, or "turriform", built during the first millennium BC (c900–800BC) on a hillside with a commanding view of the surrounding countryside.

The tower is 12m in diameter and still stands 4m tall; there are stairs within the massively thick wall, but the building's central column has not survived.

Built sometime between 650–540BC, long after the central talaiot and many of its surrounding buildings, this thick wall of cyclopean masonry consists of a base row of huge outer boulders, some weighing around 8 tonnes, with smaller ones (mostly now scattered) above them; it is faced on the inside with rows of smaller rocks.

Other talayotic sites include: Similar but not necessarily related are the "nuraghi" of Sardinia, the "torre" of Corsica, and the "sesi" of Pantelleria.