Although closed to visitors due to protect the site still being researched by archaeologists, wandering through the archway of thick ferns and undergrowth approaching the Tumulus of Tumiac, the monumental burial mound (Hรผgelgrab) in the town of Arzon was very impressive to ponder.
The fifteen metre high and two hundred metre circumference man made hill with an interior vault filled with precious grave goods constructed around 4000 BC provides a commanding perspective of the area and out to sea. According to local lore, hence the nickname Caesar’s Butte, it was from here that the Roman general witnessed the naval victory of his fleet against the Veneti in 56 BC, four millennia later, who were more skilled pilots and whose sturdy ships were impervious to ramming, and thus sealed the conquest of Gaul—though assimilation was more of a negotiated peace particularly with this sophisticated tribe who allowed the Romans entry to their trading partners on the British Isles. The tomb itself was not excavated and studied until 1830.
We also visited the nearby le Petit Mont also at the head of the Rhuys peninsula by the Port of Crouesty, the older and slightly smaller megalithic cairn was converted to a temple of Venus during Gallo Roman occupation and originally contained three tombs, though one was destroyed during WWII when the mound was converted into a bunker by the Nazis, though the exterior architecture mostly remains true to the original.
