Moigrad Hill (Măgura Moigradului)

Hill of volcanic origin, a massive mass of rock (andesite, granite etc.) that is still mined today of a quarry on the South-Western side of the hill, Moigrad Hill stands as a magnificent cone with the maximum height of 514 m, and with a level difference of 224 m to the valley of Ortelec, that had created the named pass. The upper plateau of the volcanic cone, in oval shape, has a large diameter of about 400 m and a small one of around 250 m, with a total surface of 7 hectares. Here there were made accidental archaeological discoveries even from 1855 (when it was discovered a Dacian thesaurus in silver ornaments). However the systematic research started in 1940, 1958-1959, but rigorously only from 1984, 1987-1995, 2002. Considered at first a Dacian necropolis of cremation, Moigrad Hill appears increasingly as a sacred space meant for the ritual offerings (1st century B.C.) and then an extended fortified Dacian settlement (1st century A.D.) that was preceded by rare prehistorically occupations and that was later to become a Roman fortification (2nd – 3rd century) and then a medieval settlement (12th – 14th century).