Menorca

The second largest of the Balearic Islands, boomerang-shaped MENORCA is the least plagued by unsavoury development. An essentially rural island, it features rolling fields, wooded ravines and humpy hills filling out the interior in between its two main – but still notably small – towns of Maó and Ciutadella. Much of this landscape looks pretty much as it did at the turn of the twentieth century, and only around the edges of the island, and then only in parts, have its rocky coves been colonized by sprawling villa complexes. Neither is the development likely to spread: determined to protect their island from the worst excesses of the tourist industry, the Menorcans have clearly demarcated development areas and are also pushing ahead with a variety of environmental schemes – the island was declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1993, and over forty percent of it now enjoys official protection.

Menorca is also dotted with prehistoric monuments, weatherworn stone remains that are evidence of a sophisticated culture. Little is known of the island’s prehistory, but the monuments are thought to be linked to those of Sardinia and are classified as examples of the Talayotic culture, which is usually considered to have ended with arrival of the Romans in 123 BC. Talayots are the rock mounds found all over the island – popular belief has it that they functioned as watchtowers, but it’s a theory few experts accept. The megalithic taulas – huge stones topped with another to form a T, around 4m high and unique to Menorca – are even more puzzling. They have no obvious function, and they are almost always found alongside a talayot. Some of the best-preserved talayot and taula remains are on the edge of Maó at the Talatí de Dalt site. The third prehistoric structure of note is the naveta (dating from 1400 to 800 BC), stone-slab constructions shaped like an inverted bread tin.