Arzachena, capital of the glamorous Costa Smeralda, offers more than beautiful coastline; it is also rich in archaeological interest. Its Archaeological Park features an impressive concentration of nuragic complexes and giants' grave necropolises, notable for their density and variety within a compact municipal territory. Coddu Vecchiu is the most celebrated of them: a Bronze Age collective tomb whose long burial chamber, built earlier as a slab-lined gallery, was later fronted by a curved forecourt of upright stones. At its centre rises a tall carved stele with a small opening at its base, the symbolic doorway between the living and the dead. The setting, among granite outcrops and cork oaks inland from the coast, is as striking as the monument.
