Santadi, Tomb of Giants by Barrancu Mannu

The monument is located in the interior of Sulcis, near the Riu Baccu Mannu. The area is orographically rugged, characterized by impressive granite spikes, shaped by time in bizarre ways and surrounded by primitive shrubs and trees: one of the most suggestive and fascinating environmental settings on the island.
The tomb of Barrancu Mannu, or of 'Sa Tuerredda', presents the classic planimetric pattern of giant tombs: an apsed tomb, a covered corridor and an arched exedra.
The tomb, elongated, asymmetric and slightly tapered towards the end, measures 17.90 m x 10.38-6.15 m wide.
The external wall consists of large yellow-pink granite blocks, rough and surmounted by irregular rows of variously multifaceted and large stones.
Two or three rows remain of the apsidal circle, originally concluded by ordered rows of concave lines. The right side, affected by a conspicuous collapse near the connecting point with the exedra and in the terminal section adjacent to the wall of the apse, is significantly damaged.
The exedra, which is preserved for a maximum height of 4.67 m, consists - at the base - of large blocks placed like knives overlaid with rows of large stones, cut out in the open face.
The height of the elevation slopes towards the wings of the exedra and goes - at the closing points - to 2.10 m with four rows to the northeast and to 2.60 m with five rows to the southeast.
The entrance to the monument (m 0.54 x 0.55 in height), which opens in the center of the exedra, is surmounted by a sturdy lintel (m 1.50 x 1.20 x 0.83 thick) on which rest 6 remaining rows of large stones. The plate that rests on the lintel shows, in the median area, an elliptical cupola (diameters m 0.26 x 0.20; depth m 0.13).
Immediately after the entrance, there is a small vestibule folded inwards (1.85 x 0.54/0.95 m wide), bordered by two stones on the left and three on the right, surmounted by the entrance lintel and a second lintel inside the room. The latter, higher than the external one by 0.36 m, consists of a visible plate by 2.20 m and a thickness of 0.50 m, inserted between the side rows of the wall wall of the room.
The tomb corridor, slightly trapezoidal in plan, measures 10.30 x 1.85-1.70 m wide. It is built with large blocks with little or no processing, connected to each other by plates of rough stones; they are arranged in irregular rows, projecting into the interior of the compartment, forming an ovival section in the front section and a trapezoidal section in the middle and rear sections.
The cover of the compartment, intact, consists of large and thick plates arranged flat (maximum height 1.85-1.95 m). Two deep holes opened in the terminal part of the corridor by clandestine diggers, have highlighted a flat plate to refer, in all probability, to the floor level.
The tomb can be dated to Middle Bronze, Recent Bronze.

Bibliography
C. Bittichesu, “The Tomb of Giants by Barrancu Mannu (Santadi, Cagliari)”, in Sardinia, Papers from the EAA Third Annual Meeting at Ravenna 1997, 3, edited by A. Moravetti, Oxford, BAR International Series 719, 1998, pp. 137-144.

How to get there
From Santadi, exit in the direction of the hamlet of Terresoli, cross it and after about 4 km you reach the hamlet of Barrancu Mannu, from where an agrarian penetration road leads near the tomb.