Menhir de Kerloas

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.