It is one of the most famous, interesting, and intact of the approximately thirty Nuragic well-temples where the water cult was practiced: the name "covered well" itself expresses its function and excellent state of preservation. Three kilometers from Ballao, a town in the historic region of Gerrei – along Provincial Road 13, which leads from the town to Escalaplano – lies the sacred well of Funtana Coberta, nestled in a green valley floor, enclosed to the east by a small hill.

The entire building, ten and a half meters long, was constructed from irregular, roughly hewn limestone blocks of uniform thickness, carved on the exposed side. The floor plan is unusual: two wings of different lengths create an atrium whose original flooring is still visible. As is common with sacred wells, the monument is divided into three parts: on the surface, the small outdoor atrium (or vestibule), rectangular and almost two meters wide; an access staircase with twelve narrow steps, well crafted and covered with a stepped ceiling composed of twelve sloping architraves that fit into the walls and echo the shape of the underlying steps leading down to the floor of the tholos chamber; more precisely, the tholos chamber was built in the shape of a small nuragic: it is a semi-subterranean chamber with an almost circular plan, three and a half meters wide at the bottom and covered by a false dome five and a half meters high. Noteworthy is the construction of the dome, surrounded by a drum wall, to which a projecting body is attached that delimits the access staircase and the two wings of the atrium in antis. Also noteworthy is the slight curvature of the walls, almost as if to 'invite' the faithful into the interior of the temple. The floor is made of limestone slabs carefully arranged in a radial pattern. Here is the well shaft, dug into the rock, five meters deep, and covered with 36 rows of stones, with an average opening of one meter wide, from which the water spring flows.
Source and further information: sardegnaturismo.it/it/esplora/funtana-coberta

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Elevation 230 m

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Location: Ballau/Ballao, Sud Sardegna, Sardinia, Italy

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