The archaeological area is on a relief on the border between Barbagia and Ogliastra, not far from the reservoir of Alto Flumendosa and the Corr'e Boi pass, in an extraordinary landscape of granite, porphyry and schist.
The important complex consists of a large “Megaron” temple and other religious and residential buildings; a short distance away there is a three-lobed nuraghe.
The temple “a Megaron” is built with powerful wall structures consisting of rows of blocks of various sizes, of granite and freshly drafted shale.
The building has a rectangular plan with an apsided bottom (length m 17; width m 5.50/6.50; wall thickness 1.10-1.50 m; h m 2.60). The entrance, facing E, with a straight façade, leads to a trapezoidal corridor truncated inwards (length m 2.10; width m 1-1.50) from which you can access the first rectangular compartment (m 3.1 x 3.60).
Through a rectangular corridor (1.10x1.07 m), you enter the next, smaller room with an irregular rectangular plan (m 3.70x1.80). On the back wall, the entrance - arched and with a trapezoidal exhaust window - opens to the corridor (m 1.20x1.40) that leads to the third rectangular compartment (m 2.30-2.50x3.50). This last room, equipped with a square-shaped limestone basin (now split), has returned numerous slabs with holes that bear traces of lead flows functional to fixing votive bronzes.
The last room, rectangular and irregular (m 2.60x3.40), is accessed through a square-shaped corridor (1.10x1.10 m) with wall walls jutting out in the shape of an ogive. The chamber has an irregular trapezoidal raised niche in the back wall with the entrance.
The numerous flattened slabs found inside the rooms lead to the hypothesis of their use as a building cover.
The analysis of the planimetric system revealed two construction phases of the monument: a first phase with the front façade characterized by the extension of the two side walls; a subsequent phase in which the side walls were joined to form a rectilinear wall.
A 'temenos' - parallel to the perimeter of the monument - enclosed the temple. The enclosure, with a sub-elliptical plan, was equipped with bench-seats at the base of the walls.
Leaning against the outer perimeter of the “temenos” there is a circular environment (inner diameter 3.10 m; east diameter 4.50 m) with clay pavement and two internal fireboxes.
Also near the fence, there is a rectangular room (m 6x4) and another circular hut (internal diameter m 4.30; external diameter m 6.3) with an entrance oriented to E and a threshold stone consisting of a large slab. The environment has a bench and a storage room.
Two other huts are just a short distance away: the first, circular (inner diameter m 5.90; outer diameter m 4.80), has a clay pavement, the second, also circular (inner diameter m 4.35; outer diameter m 6), turns the entrance to E and shows the plan for placing the wall structures on the rock bench, leveled with a wrought of stones and clay.
It is also possible to identify a two-lobed structure with residual walls of considerable height. Inside there is a sort of shelf that runs along the entire perimeter, made with a row of slabs.
The excavation investigation has made it possible to attribute the complex to a period between the recent and final Bronze Age and the first Iron Age, identifying two different constructive moments, the second following the total destruction of the village due to a fire.

History of excavations
The site was subject to systematic excavations from 1984 to the end of the 90s, under the direction of Maria Ausilia Fadda.

Bibliography
M.A. Fadda, "Villagrande Strisàili (Nuoro). Località S'Arcu e is Forros, Tempio a megaron", in Bollettino d'Archeologia, 10, 1991, pp. 108-110;
M.A. Fadda, "Villagrande Strisàili (Nuoro). Località S'Arcu e is Forros, Il tempio a megaron", in Bollettino d'Archeologia, 13-15, 1992, pp. 172-173;
M.A. Fadda, "Villagrande Strisàili (Nuoro). Località S'Arcu e is Forros, L'abitato nuragico intorno al tempio a megaron", in Bollettino d'Archeologia, 43-45, 1997, pp. 255-258;
M.A. Fadda, "Un esempio di architettura religiosa in Ogliastra. Il tempio a megaron di S'Arcu e is Forros", in Ogliastra. Identità storica di una Provincia. Atti del Convegno di Studi (Jerzu-Lanusei-Arzana-Tortolì, 23-25 gennaio 1997), Comunità Montana n. 11-Ogliastra, 2000, pp. 79-90;
C. Nieddu, "Complesso archeologico di S'Arcu 'e is Forros", in C. Nieddu (a cura di) Siti archeologici d'Ogliastra, Tortolì 2006, pp. 64-65.