They sighted the stars, they triangulated with the moon and the sun, they projected the sky onto the earth. Nothing was left to chance in the land of the Nuraghi. A civilization as ancient as it is mysterious, sculpted in landscapes transfused between gigantic monuments, strong and austere, and exclusive landscapes, painted by a nature marked by water and wind, uncontaminated and spectacular. To speak, four thousand years later, they are indelible signs of a profound and enlightened civilization like few others. A bottomless pit, where revelations and unpublished studies emerge every day, capable of shedding new light on the ancient history of the Sardinian people.
Gorropu tachycardia
Reaching the Supramonte di Orgosolo, emotional tachycardia stuff for those who are lucky enough, is a difficult undertaking, but not impossible. If you rely on expert guides, among paths and breathtaking landscapes, it will not be difficult to understand the unpublished conclusions of the study put on paper, and just published, by one of the largest global organizations of ecology and society, the British Ecological Society, the most ancient ecological society of the world. Projecting yourself onto those grazing hairpin bends, engraved by time around the Montes forest, means climbing up to the secret door to another world. The scents are tangible, they are so intense, the air is as rarefied as it is crystalline, the forest as ancient as it is luxuriant. If your heart holds up, look out into the deepest canyon in Europe, in that intrepid gorge that has always been called Su Gorropu here. The Flumineddu, the ancient stream that crosses the slopes of the Supramonte, has engraved it over the millennia as if it were a steel blade. Walls of white limestone, narrow and deep, which pierce the sea of pure green that surrounds them.
Nuraghe inside the wood
And then, on a spur perched like a lookout on the mountain, that primordial monument of the Nuragic people stands out, kissed by the sun and the moon, almost as if that limestone were a reflector. There, at an altitude of 835 metres, stands what mere mortals continue to call the Mereu nuraghe. In reality, handing down deep and ancient meanings, the locals continue to call it, as it should be, "Nuraghe intro 'e padente", "the nuraghe inside the woods". Impossible to glimpse if you remain lying on the forest path, sovereign and majestic once you get up there a stone's throw from heaven. A place imbued with rare beauty, where reconnecting with nature and the landscape is contemplation, meditation and listening. The toponyms of the landscape here are no coincidence: as nothing is. From Huvile Pistoccu to Huvile de S'Orada Hamposa, to Su Huvile Peleo to Su Huvile 'e Haapriles. The sheepfolds here, as in the atavistic millenary history of Sardinia, are set like that nuraghe, never by chance, studying its orientation and hinterland, agricultural and agro-pastoral potential, perceiving natural and environmental resources, with the perennial gaze turned to the primary good of water .
