Armenia Numerous menhirs dot the lands across Armenia, where they are called
vishapakar ().
Vishap translates to "dragon" or "serpent" and
kar translates to "stone". The stones are cigar-shaped, and are typically tall. They are often found in the mountains near the sources of rivers or lakes. A large number of them have been carved in the shape of a fish. The earliest known vishapakar is thought to date from between the 18th to 16th centuries BC. An inscription in ancient
Urartian cuneiform written upon a vishap at the temple of
Garni shows that they were created prior to the
Urartian Kingdom (pre-8th century).
Bulgaria Several menhirs are known in
Bulgaria: next to the museum in
Haskovo, in the village of Ovcharovo, in the village of Pethocladentsi, in the village of Stegerovo, Staroseltsi village, in Strelcha.
Czech Republic , Czech Republic A number of menhirs exist in the
Czech Republic. There are about 40 real menhirs in the country, and dozens of stones which could also be menhirs. Others have been erected recently. The largest real menhir is
Kamenný pastýř ("stony shepherd") near
Klobuky, with a height of . Czech menhirs are probably the last outcrop of similar buildings in northern Germany.
France Brittany stands out in the distribution of menhirs by virtue of both the density of monuments and the diversity of types. The largest surviving menhir in the world is located in
Locmariaquer, Brittany, and it is known as the
Grand Menhir Brisé (
Great Broken Menhir). Once nearly high, today, it lies fractured into four pieces, but it would have weighed near 330 tons when intact. It is placed third after the
Thunder Stone in St. Petersburg and the
Western Stone in the
Western Wall as the heaviest object moved by humans without powered machinery. A 4.5 meter menhir can be seen on the side of
Le Mans Cathedral. It was moved there in 1778 when the
dolmen it was associated with was destroyed.
Alignments of menhirs are common, the most famous being the
Carnac stones in Brittany, where more than 3000 individual menhirs are arranged in four groups and arrayed in rows stretching across four kilometres. Each set is organised with the tallest stones at the western end and shorter ones at the eastern end. Some end with a semicircular
cromlech, but many have since fallen or been destroyed. The second largest concentration of menhirs in France is at the
Cham des Bondons, which is located on high open limestone plain in the granitic
Cévennes. Today, the site is protected by the
Parc National des Cévennes. From the time pastoralism was established, the site was kept open by
controlled burning and grazing. The menhir de la Tiemblais is located in
Saint-Samson-sur-Rance. On the island of Corsica, menhirs are found in
Filitosa, a megalithic site in southern Corsica. The period of occupation spans from the end of the Neolithic era and the beginning of the Bronze Age, until around the Roman times in Corsica.
Ireland , Ireland Ireland is rich in menhirs, standing stones which are usually located in farmer's fields and are heavily worn due to poor weather conditions and exposure to livestock.
Italy Menhirs are especially common in
Sardinia. It is possible to see at least 332 such standing stones on the island, including especially elaborate "statue-menhirs" that show a human face at the top and other gendered symbols on the flat front sides. Over a hundred examples of this standardized type have been found, most of them around the village of
Laconi.
Norway Overall 1,176 menhirs are registered in
Norway. The stones are often included as part of a tomb construction. The introduction to
Snorre Sagas points out that it was the custom to "burn all dead and raise monoliths for them" and that this custom was maintained in Norway and Sweden for a long time. As a rule, each grave was marked with a single stone, but there were also instances where several stones were used, including the burial facility
De fem dårlige jomfruer at
Karmsundet in
Rogaland, with five raised stones. It is especially prevalent in
Østlandet to find several monoliths arranged in a circle. Sometimes standing stone monuments are unrelated to known graves. It may be that they served as boundary markers. These include several stones in
Fana in
Bergen Municipality that can be linked to an important historical boundary between
Sunnhordland and
Nordhordland, as it was in medieval times. In Norway, standing stones usually dated to the
Migration Period, the
Viking Age or
early Middle Ages.
Portugal In
Portugal, there are also found several ancient menhirs. The highest concentration is in the Alentejo region. These include the menhirs of
Meada, the largest of the Iberian Peninsula,
Outeiro,
Patalou and
Barrocal. Among these megalithic structures is the great Almendres Menhir within the
Almendres Cromlech complex near
Évora.
Scandinavia bautasten In
Scandinavia, menhirs are called
bautasteiner or
bautastenar and continued to be erected during the
Pre-Roman Iron Age and later, usually over the ashes of the dead. They were raised both as solitary stones and in formations, such as the
stone ships and few
stone circles. Sometimes, they were raised only as commemoration to great people, a tradition which was continued as the
runestones.
Frostating, with its seat at Tinghaugen in
Frosta Municipality in
Trøndelag county, was the site of an early Norwegian court. The site is represented by the
Frostatinget bautasten. The tradition was strongest in
Bornholm,
Gotland and
Götaland and appears to have followed the
Goths, during the 1st century, to the southern shore of the
Baltic Sea, (now Northern Poland) where they are a characteristic of the
Wielbark culture.
Scotland Various menhirs have existed in Scotland. The
Ravenswood standing stone is an extant one that is about 4000 years old.
Serbia The graves of the "Latins" and the "Jidovs" near the village of Balwan (
Bovan), north of
Aleksinac in Serbia were marked by large boulders.
Slovakia . There are multiple menhirs that have or currently exist in Slovakia. The most known is the
Holíč Menhir, a collection of menhirs that were found in 1988 during the construction of an NPP building.
Spain In Spain, menhirs associated with the western European megalithic industry are relatively unusual compared to
dolmens, but still are common sights in the northern half of the country, where at least 500 menhirs have been reported. They are particularly common in the
Basque Country,
Navarre, northern
Burgos and
Palencia,
Cantabria, and the
Pyrenees, where they are usually encountered standing alone or in small groups (cromlech) in elevated locations; the
Arlobi menhir is one of the most recent examples of a menhir. In smaller numbers, but of great dimensions, some examples are located in
Extremadura, very related to the menhirs of Portugal. Most of the menhirs in northern Spain appear to date back to the stone age; they are not usually associated with burials, but in at least one instance (the
Menhir of Cuesta del Molino in
Burgos) burials dating at least 2000 years after the menhir was originally built have been found. In mediterranean Spain and, particularly the Balearic islands, megalithic structures consisting of standing stones such as the
Taulas, but associated with
Bronze Age and
Iron Age cultures, are also common.
Sweden In Sweden menhirs were erected as markers for the graves of warriors until the 13th century. The following lines are taken from
Snorri Sturluson's introduction to his work
Heimskringla: In the same work Snorri writes that the Swedes burned the corpse of their king
Vanlade and raised a stone over his ashes by the River Skyt, one of the tributaries of the
River Fyris: The tradition is also mentioned in the
Hávamál.
Switzerland In the French-speaking canton of
Vaud in
Switzerland, several menhirs form linear patterns in
Yverdon-les-Bains. These are situated in Clendy and date back to the third millennium BC.
Wales , Wales In Welsh, menhirs are called 'Maen Hir' and they are scattered throughout Wales. ==South America==