Malta II - Before the Knights

Again, a photo-heavy entry. That’s what happens when you try and pick from over 300 photos.

I think the Malta prehistoric/pre-knight culture is under-rated. We saw three temples, one of which was built entirely underground, the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum; we were lucky to get into that one as they limit numbers carefully for environment control, but they don’t allow photos. Here’s a site that does:
http://www.jimdiamondmd.com/MaltaTemples.htm


This is part of the temple on Gozo, the Gigantija, so-named because it was once thought to have been built by a race of giants (because the stones are bigger than they look from these photos. This is thought to be the oldest free-standing structure anywhere, some 5000 years old.


This is the Tarxien temple, near the underground temple – they are finding the underground complexes were often built near an above ground temple, so it seems to have been a part of the religion. It’s not as well-preserved as the one on Gozo, but is bigger. There are other temples we didn’t get to, and all are different; this site has some lovely photos.

I looked in on the Museum of Archaeology in Valletta – they have collected some of the prehistoric statues and temple figurines they’ve found – the photos aren’t wonderful, sorry.



My favourite, the Sleeping Lady, perhaps a depiction of death, and perhaps not a woman at all, was found in the Hypogeum. Then there is the ‘Venus of Malta’, and a fine collection of sitting ladies. The heads, by the way, have not been broken off, they appear to have been designed to be removable/interchangeable.










We did the catacombs in Rabat next to Mdina. (Rabat meaning ‘suburb’, Mdina meaning ‘city’ – as with the Medina here in Tripoli).


These are photos of St Paul’s Catacombs, which are large and have an audio tour; you can see some of the various types of tombs here, and a table used for feasting to celebrate/mourn the dead, and a tomb ‘plug’ thought to be for a doctor, given the tools depicted on it. They were thought to have started from a cave in Phoenician times; and are surprisingly multicultural, holding the dead of Christian, Jewish, and Arabic peoples of the time.



We also went to St Agatha’s Catacombs; no photos allowed here, but it did have some fine paintings on the wall, all defaced by Arabs arriving after the Romans, but still recognisably fine work – here is a scan of St Agatha from a newspaper. We were lucky enough to have a torch with us, so we able to go off the lit paths in St Agatha’s and into the maze of catacombs they don’t think tourists want to see.







To finish, here are some nice photos around Mdina. The main entry and a view of the walls, the view from the wall on the other side of town (note the Mosta dome, mentioned in the last entry – see, it is big, isn’t it?), their cathedral (behind which is a fantastic cathedral museum, with artworks and coins and other interesting things, and OK, I know I sound old now), some winding streets ...









... and lastly the backside of the heraldic lion at the gate, which I feel is quite well-made.