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CROMLECH DU MAIL DE SOUPÈNE
- Historical sites and monuments
BENQUE-DESSOUS-ET-DESSUS
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Listed as a Historic Monument.
The Mail de Soupène Cromlech (an alignment of upright stones) dating from the Neolithic period. Listed in 1889.
At an altitude of 1,300 metres and 400 metres from the Peyrelade LHBAGN cromlechs, there are 12 cromlechs measuring between 1.50 and 7 metres in diameter. As if chained together, the circles descend along the grassy ridge of the Mail de Soupène.
Around 160 stones, including one with cupules, make up this complex.
Two of these cromlechs, or rather harrespils (Pyrenean cremation burials surrounded by a stone circle) still have their cist in an excellent state of preservation: these sort of small funerary chests, made of schist slabs, are 40 cm square and 35 cm deep and still have their small covering slabs.
The cromlechs at Mail de Soupène and Peyrelade were excavated at the end of the 19th century. Two bronze bracelets are in the Musée Saint-Raymond in Toulouse, and the cinerary vases are in the Musée de Bagnères de Luchon.
The cromlechs are just under an hour's walk away. They are signposted from the top of the Peyrelade mountain pasture or even from the D618 near Saint-Aventin.
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- Historical sites and monuments