Megolithic Temples on Malta (2/10)

After yesterday's marathon effort we declared it a catch up day. We were up late, and Allan decided to go for a light run. He has had ankle trouble for a week or more now, so running hasn't featured on the agenda as much as he would have liked. Jill did another load of washing, then sat down with her diary – it always is there to be done!

The Temple at Hagar Qim is in good shape considering
how old it is.  How did they move (and shape) those rocks.

At about 2.30pm we decided to head out, our target this time being the temple complexes we didn't get to on our walk along the southern coast a couple of days ago. This involved three buses. The first into Valletta, the second from there to Zurrieq, and the third to the temples. This went according to plan until the temple stop. Jill made the mistake of asking the driver if he was going past the temples, and not asking him to tell us which stop to get off at. We got to the bus stop, and it wasn't until we had passed it that we realised that that was where we should have got off. We immediately buzzed and he eventually stopped. It meant we had a reasonable walk back to the entrance by which time it was 4.30 pm. As suspected, the main entrance was closed, but we went to a side entrance and were allowed in, on the condition that we were out by 5.00pm. We weren't able to do the site justice, but at least we got to see the temples. There are two temple complexes about 600m apart. The first, Hagar Qim, is the older of the two, built around 3700-3200 BC. It is similar to the temples we visited on Gozo, but in a much better state of preservation. There is one main temple and three additional megalithic structures. The floor plan has a series of six apses off a main passageway, and there are more internal structural arrangements than on Gozo. There are niches and upright stones which look a little like alters. Some of the stones are enormous. The largest has been estimated to weigh 57 tons, and the largest upright menhir stands at 5.2 m high, truly monumental. They are built of local stone, unlike Stonehenge, but it is not known how they moved them to the site – there is speculation that they could have used the stone balls that have been found in the vicinity, but they would have needed a fairly smooth trackway. Neither is it known how they erected them either as the entrance to the temple is a trilithon, two uprights holding up a lintel. Some of the stone slabs here have been decorated with pock marks over their entire surface, but the purpose is not known either.

Complete doorways have been carved out of solid rock
using stone tools! 

No human remains have been discovered at the site, but there have been many animal bones recovered leading archeologists to believe that animal sacrifices were carried out here. There have also been statuettes of humans with large bottoms recovered, but they have no sexual characteristics. Highly decorated pottery has also been found. The second complex, Mnajdra, is about 600m down the slope from Hagar Qim. There are three temples in this complex, built over a period from 3600 to 2500 BC. These temples were constructed from a harder coralline limestone so have suffered far less from weathering. The upper three-apsed building has a doorway cut through a block of limestone, and some of the pillars have a pattern of horizontal holes drilled into the stone. The roof appears to have been vaulted. The middle temple is the youngest and is formed by slabs topped with horizontal courses, however the lowest temple is the most impressive and has a forecourt and benches built into the outer wall. The inner passageway was covered with horizontal slabs and the roofs of the apses were possibly corbelled. Some of the inner slabs of this one have been decorated with pitted decoration and spirals. Unlike the temples at Gozo, no plaster has been found, so the stones forming the internal walls may have just been smoothed down.

Decoration on the structure at Mnajdra

On the spring and autumn equinoxes the sun passes through the doorway and lights up the major axis, and on the summer and winter solstices the sun strikes the megaliths on either side of this doorway. Flint knives have been found along with animal bones, so it is thought that these temples were also used for animal sacrifice. Again, no human remains have been found in any of the structures. Unfortunately we had to race through both complexes because of the time constraints, but at least we did get to see them and we were impressed. Both of the temple complexes are now protected by a sail roof over them, but are still open to the elements,and have monitoring stations within the structures so they have a head start on the temples on Gozo for surviving into the long term. Obviously there are a lot of unanswered questions about these temples here on both islands of Malta.

Fortunately we did not have to wait too long for a bus back to Valletta. For Malta, we were a reasonable distance from Valletta, so the buses are less frequent. It was just on 6.00pm by the time we got back so we decided to eat in Valletta before catching the bus back to Gzira. We both ordered a Maltese salad. This came with slices of sausage, mixed olives, dried tomatoes, Gozo cheese, a dip that we think had olives and eggplant in, Maltese crackers and salad. The flavours were very intense but we both wanted to try something "typically Maltese". Compared to what we are used to Maltese and Sicilian food seem very salty. We stopped off at a gelati bar on the way back to the bus, and paid a premium price for a very good gelato.

As we wandered along the main street of Valletta, we came across a band playing in a small hall, then heard more music up a side street. One was a band rehearsing for a concert, and the other was a group of locals line-dancing! We could have also have had tango lessons. We then found a brochure which had a music and performance program on it. The performance space the band was practising in was actually the remains of the opera house which was destroyed during the war. This was up near what would have been the original city gate into Velletta, where there is a lot of construction/restoration work going on around it and the bus terminal. It would be interesting to see it completed. It was a bus ride back to the apartment after a relaxed day.

One mystery was solved today. In almost every field we saw was a small stone "building" which didn't seem large enough for anything practical. We found out today that they were used as hides for bird trapping. A snap trap would be set, a caged bird was set up as a lure, and the man then crawled into the hut to hide, waiting for his prey to come close enough for him to spring the trap. It is now illegal, but may explain why we have seen very little birdlife. Actually, I don't think we have even seen a skink, which was a very common sighting in Sicily, even in the heart of cities like Catania.