Coto dos Mouros is a prehistoric megalithic monument located in the municipality of Rodeiro, forming part of the area’s ancient archaeological heritage. These types of structures were collective burial tombs built between the Neolithic and the Copper Age, more than four thousand years ago, and are associated with the funerary practices and beliefs of the first communities that inhabited the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula.
The dolmen, listed in the Galician Heritage Catalogue, is located in the place of Alemparte, in the parish of Santo Estevo. The original structure consists of a megalithic corridor formed by large vertical stones arranged in a polygonal plan, originally covered by a large capstone, although today the cover slab has collapsed inside the chamber.
This monument is an example of the Neolithic archaeological richness of Galicia, where burial mounds and dolmens served as places of ritual burial and reflected the cultural development of prehistoric societies that sought to materialise their ideas about life and death through megalithic structures. Despite conservation issues, Coto dos Mouros remains a reference point of prehistoric heritage in the Deza region, allowing visitors to connect with a remote past that forms part of the earliest history of the territory.
