The menhir of Kerloas, also called menhir of Kervéatoux, is located in Plouarzel in the department of Finistère. It is considered the highest menhir currently standing 1, with its 9.50 m above the ground.

Protection

The building is classified as a historical monument in 1883.

Description


The menhir is in granite from the Aber-Ildut. It has a flattened shape. Its flanks are surfaced according to a technique typical of the Bronze Age. Stones at its base form a raised circular surface. Its beveled crown results from the thunderbolt it received in the eighteenth century and which has decapitated, previously it was 12 m high.

It has two diametrically opposed hemispherical protuberances about thirty centimeters in diameter at about one meter from the ground, which made it considered by some as a phallic symbol 3. Thus, according to La Villemarque, these protuberances were in his time the object of a cult of fertility.

It was erected about 5,000 years ago on a ridge of 132 m altitude.

It is visible 30 km (especially since some Brest buildings) and was a remarkable landmark for sailors.

Its weight is estimated at 150 tons and its circumference at ground level is 6.20 meters.