The name "talayot" comes from the Catalan talaiot and this from the Spanish Arabic ṭaláya,1​ 'watchtower', since, both due to their shape and their location, these monuments look like watchtowers or defensive towers. Its construction technique, based on large stones fitted "dry", without cement or mortar, is currently called "Cyclopean technique", in reference to the Mycenaean constructions of Ancient Greece. This term must be distinguished from the term "megalithic", which characterizes the works of the various dolmen-building cultures.

On the island of Mallorca, the majority of talayots belong to two clearly characterized types: circular talayots and square talayots. The first are the most abundant, they are circular in plan, their measurements range between eight and seventeen meters in diameter, and they are usually oriented towards other monuments. Square talayots are more or less square in plan, almost always with two of their walls oriented towards the solstices or their lunar equivalents, and whose measurements are stricter, almost always between ten and eleven meters on each side. Their spatial location also characterizes them: while circular talayots can be found in villages, isolated, or in ceremonial centers, square talayots are practically always found integrated into ceremonial centers. Both circular and square talayots have a single entrance, a corridor that runs through the thick walls (up to four meters thick), and an interior chamber provided with a central column.