Neolithic Temples of Malta

There are actually quite a few tourist-type things to do on Malta. We decided to purchase 2-day Malta passes. These gained us free admission into a number of sites as well as a boat trip around the main harbor and a bus tour of the island. Many of the included museums and sites are part of Heritage Malta, the national organization for museums and cultural heritage. Malta is home to four sites of prehistoric temples which are all part of Heritage Malta. The four, taken together, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The temples are all constructed out of the local limestone found on site. As such, they weather easily and are deteriorating. All are approximately 5000 years old, predating Stonehenge by nearly 1000 years. Most were discovered and excavated in the early to mid 1800’s. They must have been very impressive when they were built, especially given the limited building techniques available at the time. The largest blocks weigh up to 20 tons and are 5+ meters tall. The largest of the temples are 23+ meters along the largest span and were covered by rock ceilings. Not much is known about their function other than that which can be guessed on site. After all, prehistoric means that they were built before humans were recording history. There were statues found on site which might have represented deities or might just have been fat, sumo wrestlers. There are marking on some of the rocks: decorations, calendars, more?

During our travels we saw three of the four temples. Two which are very close together are the Mnajdra and Hagar Qim Temples near Qrendi. To be honest, they pretty much look like piles of rocks, but they were really cool to wander around. Below are some shots of Hagar Qim, the first temple we went to. Amy’s presence gives you a sense of scale. This is a single temple which has been covered by a gigantic tarp which provides protection while they decide how to best protect and preserve them.

After that we walked the half kilometer to Mnajdra. Mnajdra is a grouping of three temples, two of which are reasonably complete. The most interesting one is the South Temple. It appears to have been carefully aligned with the motion of the sun. At sunrise on both equinoxes the sun shines directly in to light up the main altar area while at each solstice the sun angles through to exactly hit a side altar. The main Mnajdra Temple altar is depicted on the 1, 2 and 5 euro cent coins of Malta.

The third temple site we visited was on the smaller island of Gozo. The Temple of Ggantija is some 5800 years old and is the oldest free standing stone structure in the world. The temples themselves are in worse shape and it is clear that they haven’t yet upgraded the facilities to the same extent as the ones on the main island. Still, they are pretty impressive. One has a sort of five leaf clover shape. They have some interesting stone altars and carvings. They are also the home to hundreds of little green lizards which run around sunning themselves.