This plaque is located in Upper Barrakka Gardens and I can imagine that this is well deserved, the bomb disposal teams must have been enormously busy during the Second World War. More bombs were dropped on the islands than were dropped on London and the attacks were relentless for years. The plaque is also relatively new, it was unveiled by Joseph Muscat, the country’s Prime Minister, in 2017.
And here’s another photo of a cat, meandering around in front of the plaque.
I rather over-dosed on Roman history when I visited Trier a couple of weeks ago but although Malta has a lot of Roman history, there’s only one museum dedicated to it. This is a former Roman settlement in Mdina which has some extensive mosaics in the main building, and some other associated buildings which mostly weren’t as grand.
This is the side of the site, with Roman buildings visible in the foreground. They would have been in the background as well, but the British built a road through the site in the mid to late nineteenth century. There were no records made of what was found, so much has unfortunately been lost to history. The Roman site itself was located shortly after, in 1881, during a landscaping project and was then carefully excavated.
More of the external buildings.
A skeleton which was found on the site from an Islamic cemetery built around the ninth century AD. The cemetery was built around the former Roman buildings and numerous Islamic gravestones have been found.
Roman glass.
I’m not really into my Roman columns, but this is apparently an internationally important example of an Italic-Corinthian capital as few are found intact.
More pillars.
This statue of Antonia comes from this site and it’s thought to have been from an administrative building rather than from a residential property.
Another statue found at the site, this time of Claudius, dating from the 1st century AD.
The mosaic in the main courtyard room.
This is the tablinum, so could have been used as a reception room or study. There have been some fairly crude repairs to the mosaic floor during the later Roman period which look like I’ve done them.
Not much of the mosaic flooring has survived in the triclinium, which would have been used as a family dining room.
I had a Heritage Malta pass so didn’t pay for admission directly, but there are also options such as the Rabat ticket which gives admission to a few historic sites in the area. Visiting just the Roman museum is though perhaps just a little expensive at €6.
Overall, I thought that this was a reasonably sized museum, which I deliberately visited from the end to the beginning, solely because there was a group of school children behind me. Fortunately they were well behaved children who didn’t get in my way, or indeed that of any other visitor. It’s a shame that more of the site didn’t survive the British road building, but at least a decent amount is still visible.
Kinnie is sometimes known as the national Maltese soft drink, and it’s certainly quite widely available on the islands. It’s a bitter orange flavour drink which is vaguely similar to Irn-Bru. It’s a distinctive taste, which I like, and it’s apparently exported around the world, although I can’t recall ever seeing it. There’s a logo on the can which says “available on Amazon”, so I can imagine there are many drinkers of the product around the world who can’t otherwise source it without buying it on-line.
Malta Maritime Museum is located in Birgu in a building which was formerly used by the Royal Naval Bakery. After the end of the Second World War the building was instead used by the Admiralty Constabulary and it remained empty after the British left in 1979. After some years when the building stated to deteriorate it was decided to turn it into the country’s first dedicated maritime museum.
Visitors enter on the ground floor and most of the displays are on the first floor. I decided to enter the museum by wandering by the ticket desk and finding myself in the exhibits area, before realising that I had probably better check with the ticket desk. This was excusable as there were some VIPs cluttering up the reception area, making it hard for me to ascertain what I was supposed to do. After I presented my Heritage Malta pass the staff member gave me a map of the site, which proved helpful in working out where I was supposed to go.
One of the first sights in the museum is this Roman anchor, with this being one of the largest which has been found.
In a slightly separate part of the building is some old machinery in quite a spacious display area. Indeed, the whole museum is spacious and they appear to have more space than they do exhibits at times. The building is probably too large for the museum as it currently stands, but they can always expand and keep building up the already substantial number of exhibits.
Some kind of motor thing for a boat.
The Knights of the Order of St. John, who ran the islands for centuries, had a strong navy. This is a model of one of their carracks, the Santa Maria, which was originally a Muslim ship which the Knights pinched. The Knights were very proud of their ship until a boy decided he’d play with gunpowder on its deck and managed to set the cannons off all by himself. In what could be considered as an unfortunate incident, the ship sank. It’s still there, at the bottom of Galley Creek.
This is quite special, it’s the instruction manual for signalling on ships owned by the Knights.
A replica of the naval uniform worn by a Captain fighting for the Knights.
The Amati Column, which was erected in 1651, formerly stood on the waterfront in Valletta, named after the Italian Knight who financed a shelter in the area.
There are some models of ships in the museum, this is one of the larger and more impressive ones. At this point I would comment on the lighting in the museum as it was nearly dark in some places, making reading the information boards difficult. They also decided that it would be useful to make the writing quite small, which added a game show element to proceedings, it became a little like a Krypton Factor test to try and see the text.
Sailors weren’t allowed to gamble on board boats, but they did anyway. These are dice which the sailors created from whittling away bone, with an uncompleted one on the right hand side.
This figurehead from HMS Hibernia was for a time located at the entrance to the nearby Fort St. Angelo and there is a sign there indicating where it used to be. When the British military left Malta they took this figurehead with them and between 1979 and 1994 it was displayed at the Royal Navy Museum in Portsmouth. When this maritime museum in Malta opened the British kindly sent it back again.
The log book from HMS Hibernia.
A collection of items from the NAAFI.
A recreation of what a Royal Navy bar would have looked like.
A letter from the Rear Admiral to the President of Malta following the departure of British troops.
Overall, I liked this museum as it was spacious and there was plenty to see. The lighting perhaps needs looking at in places and it was a shame that there weren’t many other visitors when I was there. It’s a comprehensive museum covering maritime history from the earliest days right through to the end of the twentieth century. It’s not as polished as some of the other newer Heritage Malta museums, but still worth visiting.
Located near to the Ħaġar Qim Temples, these temples are of a similar date although are made from a different type of stone. The site was first investigated at the same time and there are many other commonalities between them.
I had my ticket ready to enter the temples, although the man in the shed checking tickets smiled and waved me through without checking. He seemed to be checking the tickets of other people, so I must have just looked very trusting. Anyway, I had a ticket, so all was well and I could remain guilt free.
They selected a nice spot for their temple, extensive sea views. As may be evident from the photo, it was about to pour with rain during my visit, so the shelter was appreciated.
Interestingly, and shockingly, much of this site is repaired after a serious vandalism attack in April 2001 when 60 of the stones were toppled over. Some clever restoration took place to correct the damage, which must have been heart-breaking for the museum authorities. The police apparently knew which three people did it, but had insufficient evidence to prosecute.
One of the apses in the temple.
Looking out towards the edge of the site. Unfortunately I’m not enough of a temple expert to really understand this site, but there was an upper and lower section, with the upper section having been constructed first. It’s not known why the temples were built, but it’s thought to have had a religious or fertility related significance.
Some of the more eroded stones. As with other temples, they have a relevance to the solstices, when light would have shone through. Whether this was for religious or more practical farming reasons isn’t known, but what a clever piece of engineering to be able to make that work. The protective shelter over the top of the site was only added in 2009, perhaps a little too late to prevent the damage from the elements.
These temples are part of a heritage walk along the coast, which I walked some of, but the rain was too hard to complete it. I might have persisted but it started thundering and lightning, and I didn’t want to be standing on a high cliff edge with that going on….
This is the Congreve Memorial which commemorates the life of Walter Norris Congreve, a well respected English army officer who later became the Governor of Malta between 1924 and 1927. Congreve was also awarded the substantial honour of the Victoria Cross.
Congreve was buried between the main island of Malta and the small island (or big rock) of Filfla.
Congreve’s memorial procession in Valletta in 1927.
Photos of the burial at sea which were published in the Illustrated London News.
A post just of three photos taken from Upper Barrakka Gardens. This is the highest point of the city’s defensive walls and the views over the Grand Harbour are extensive.
Ħaġar Qim Temples date to around 3,500BC and are another in the series of neolithic temples across Malta which still hold many mysteries. They were mostly buried naturally over time, although some stones remained visible, until an archaeological dig which took place in 1839. Inevitably, given the age, this has now become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This site is linked to another nearby historic site, the Mnajdra Temples, and they share a museum which I’ll post about separately. The museum is something a little different and some thought has been put into creating an environment which is relevant for visitors of all ages.
The entrance into the site. Unfortunately I went around the site in the wrong order and so I didn’t get an audio guide, which meant that I didn’t have a clue what I was looking at for much of the time. I didn’t get a map either as are offered at most other Heritage Malta sites. But, if I had gone the correct way round, I would have had these….
One of the porthole doorways, all made from one large piece of stone. It is known that these temples weren’t used for burials of humans, although animal bone sacrifices have been found, and it’s also known that circular stones were used to transport the larger stones around.
In the museum there is a photograph showing how well preserved these stones were in the nineteenth century, and how they deteriorated after they had been exposed. Unfortunately that means that these have been restored, which does limit my enthusiasm just a little. Nearly all of the site is though original, it’s just that some clumsy restoration work in the early twentieth century made things a little worse than need be when cement was used….
The obese figures, although not much of them remain. Although I might not really understand these sites in minute detail, I do like the thought that they were an essential part of the communities several thousand years ago. I can also see how they were abandoned, the site ceases to have much of a function as soon as the religious significance is lost, other than using them for animals to shelter in.
And one of the guards inside the museum. It’s a clever place to sit, as it’s warm, covered and the cat can watch people all day knowing that no-one is allowed near it.
Anyway, a quick trip to TripAdvisor to pick my favourite review for this UNESCO World Heritage site, which is over 5,000 years old.
“It is a pile of rocks under a large tent. After about 3 minutes and very little to look at – the €20 euros you and your wife/friend/partner spent would have tasted better at lunch.”
Marvellous. Although incidentally the vast majority of TripAdvisor reviews are, quite deservedly, very positive. Most of the stones of particular interest were sent to the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta, although I saw these on my first day in Malta and so didn’t really understand the significance of them at the time.
Located in Upper Barrakka Gardens is this memorial to 15 men who died on the HMS Orwell when it was in collision with HMS Pioneer on 30 January 1903. The incident happened off Corfu and this memorial was funded by the officers and men of the fleet. The memorial is here as HMS Orwell was part of the Mediterranean fleet, which was stationed at Malta.
Above are some drawings of the collision which were published at the time by the Illustrated London News. Incidentally and curiously, eight of the fifteen men were called William, which seems an unusual coincidence. HMS Orwell was used extensively in the First World War and was then sent for scrap in 1920. A sad end. HMS Pioneer was scuttled in 1931, although it was re-discovered by divers in 2014.
I’m nearing the end of my 21 days in Malta and I’ve hardly posted about the buses…. I’ve seen a lot of the above map during my time on the islands, and I’ve taken about 65 bus journeys. The 65 is an estimate, I haven’t carefully noted down each one….
The three photos are just random ones from a trip going from Valletta back to the hotel. I was trying to capture some more of the interesting shots of the sea, but the bus got busy and someone stood in front of me. I thought taking photos of someone’s head and the background just poking out wouldn’t really work. So, I present three photos of the early part of the journey instead.
And, this leads me onto saying just how crowded the buses usually are. They’re full more often than not, especially between 07:00 and 10:00 and from 14:00 to 18:00. The bus service is reliable and comprehensive, with no bus during my trip being more than fifteen minutes late. However, they do perhaps need more buses as I can’t begin to imagine what it’s like during the busier summer months.
The bus prices are cheap, especially for locals who get a discounted rate. I purchased a €21 card every week which gave me unlimited bus travel for 7 days, as much as I wanted on both the main island and Gozo. I bought my tickets from WH Smiths at the airport, although for reasons unknown they said this purchase couldn’t be made with credit cards. Individual tickets are €1.50 during the winter months and €2 during the summer months, and this includes free transfers within two hours of the initial ticket purchase. Weekly tickets also last for seven fulls days, so if I first used the ticket on a Sunday afternoon I could still use it the following Sunday morning.
Maltese buses used to be rickety old things of various different designs, although they apparently had quite a lot of charm to them. Personally, I don’t really want charm with a public transportation service, I want efficiency. The country also used to have a rail line between Valletta and Mdina, but it got shut down a long time ago, which is unfortunate to say the least.
And another thought is that very few customers seem to thank the bus driver, it’s unusually low compared to other countries. I haven’t quite worked out why this is, although the residents of Gozo seem to be more polite to the drivers.
Overall, I thought that the bus service offered decent value for money and the timetabling is clear at stops and on maps. It’s an extensive service and generally pretty frequent, with night services also running. But, they really do need even more buses, as the journeys when the bus is full and banging up and down on potholes isn’t an ideal way to get around.
