La Bastida de Totana

Totana, Spain, Spain

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La Bastida de Totana is a major Bronze Age archaeological site from the El Argar culture, located on a hill near Totana in Murcia, southeastern Spain, occupied from around 2200 to 1550 BC.

It features an impressive fortification system unique in continental Europe, including a massive double-walled enclosure up to three meters thick, supported by pyramid-based towers spaced four meters apart, originally rising six to seven meters high around a 40,000-square-meter settlement that housed up to 1,000 people.

First excavated in 1869 and studied extensively since, the site reveals advanced urban planning, social hierarchy through elite burials, and economic centrality, comparable only to Minoan Crete, with ongoing research highlighting its role as Europe's most sophisticated prehistoric city.