Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Malta – Gozo – Ġgantija Temples

    Ġgantija is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and although it is slightly argued over, this site is perhaps the second oldest man-made structure in the world which is still standing. The temples date back 5,500 years and mark a significant and quite remarkable construction effort for the time.

    A visit for most people starts at the entrance, but I decided to try and get into the exit before a staff member helpfully mentioned I was in the wrong building. Anyway, the visit for everyone else starts at the entrance and they first go into a museum which gives the background of the temples.

    Above are circular stones which were found on the site and it’s thought that these were used in moving the larger stones into place. This site pre-dates the creation of the wheel and these circular stones have been found in similar temple sites on the islands.

    The sheer age of this site means that most items found here are some of the oldest of their kind in the world. This is a decorated pot, with the decoration added after the pottery was fired. It’s thought to be around 4,500 to 5,000 years old.

    This is one of the stone slabs found at the site, but moved inside in 1957 to better protect it. It has a carving on a snake on the side, again making this one of the earliest representations of a snake in existence.

    These are cow toe bones found at the site, sculpted to represent human faces.

    A skull found at the site which dates back to the Neolithic period.

    Using the above skull they have been able to recreate what the person would have looked like, it was a young female.

    Significant analysis has been made on the bones found at the site, and this individual suffered from spina bifida. They died at between the age of 8 and 13.

    This individual suffered from osteomyelitis, which is a bone infection which can apparently now be treated easily today with antibiotics.

    After visiting the museum there is then the site itself. There was a coach party ahead of me, but they were leaving just as I arrived at the site. So, I had this site pretty much to myself.

    They picked a nice site to place their temple.

    The front of the site. Unless some other temple sites, this has avoided being messed around with too much. The British cleared the debris from the site in the 1820s, which probably caused significant loss, but nearly everything visible is original. Other than the scaffolding and the walkway obviously.

    The side of the site.

    Some of the structure is being supported by scaffolding to prevent any little collapsing incidents. There are long-term plans to remove the scaffolding by fiddling about with the stone, but I hope they don’t do too much fiddling with it.

    A walkway into the main temple area.

    It is thought that this is a later amendment to the main doorway as there is evidence of metal working, which wasn’t available to the original builders.

    The walkways inserted into the site to let visitors see the stonework.

    This is one of the few areas where there has been some restoration, but it was done in the nineteenth century shortly after the stones fell and was based on paintings drawn a few years before.

    The scaffolding is extensive around the site.

    This is nineteenth century graffiti which was added to the stones by people who visited the site, often as part of their Grand Tour. It was acceptable at the time, I assume because no-one thought to put a visitor’s book at the site. There are cameras at the site to stop anyone adding their little inscriptions now, although it’s still happening on occasion much to the fury of Heritage Malta.

    Anyway, I felt that this was an amazing site and one of the most important heritage sites that I’ve visited. For this to have been created by the people of the time with such limited means is a substantial achievement, and it’s impressive that it has remained standing since. Some of the site got buried over time, but it would have been easy to quarry some of the stone, history has certainly treated this site well.

    To amuse myself, I had a little look on TripAdvisor at the negative reviews, and this was a favourite:

    “Please don’t waste your money,or more importantly time visiting this place. How other people reviewed this at five stars beggars belief.Its a collection of nothing”.

    Hmmmm. The site’s response was professional and quite accurate IMO…

    “The Ġgantija Temples Heritage Park has recently benefitted from a major investment, which saw the construction of an Interpretation Centre that presents detailed information of the site, audiovisual facilities and a collection of unique artefacts from Gozo’s prehistoric legacy. This precedes the visit to the Neolithic temples of Ġgantija, a monument which has survived 6,000 years and which has been recognized by UNESCO as one of the earliest architectural accomplishments in human history. In view of this, the comment ‘a collection of nothing’ seems hardly fair.”

    Another little treat:

    “We visited on a rainy day and had it to ourselves. The museum was semi interesting. We then walked to the site and saw a bunch of rocks, many of which were held in place by metal scaffolding. Anything of interest was removed long ago, so you saw a pile of rocks. It really wasn’t much different than any other pile of rocks we’ve seen on Gozo. We left feeling quite disappointed. Sorry for the critical review but we expected a lot more.”

    The site didn’t deem this one worth replying, perhaps the metal scaffolding should be removed so that everything could fall down. And then they could build a McDonald’s at the site…. Great plan….

    And my final TripAdvisor review which I enjoyed reading:

    “We were taken to the Xaghra Stone Circle as part of our full-day guided tour of the island of Gozo. When the tour arrived there and we were guided through the small museum and then out on to the site under the blazing midday sun, we were wondering what we were actually doing there. We were taken around to see several different piles of rocks with the tour guide providing descriptions as we went. However, as it was so hot, very few members of the tour group could actually concentrate on what she was saying. If you are an archaeologist and piles of old rocks are your thing then this is the place for you. If not, give it a miss!”

    I thought that as piles of old rocks go, they’re some of the most amazing that I’ve seen. But, each to their own  🙂

  • Malta – Gozo – Ghajnsielem Parish Church in Frame

    This is a clever little idea, place a frame up at a viewpoint over the town so that visitors can take a photo of themselves and the background. Or in my case, just the background, which is Ghajnsielem Parish Church in the town of Mgarr.

  • Malta – Gozo – Walk near Mgarr

    This post is just photos, it’s a walk from Mgarr (where the ferry terminal is at Gozo) along the coast. Very nice.

     

  • Malta (Northern Region) – St. Paul’s Bay – Milestone

    Although milestones dated back to the Roman period, it was the British who installed a large number of them around the Maltese islands. A hard wearing rock was used, but many have inevitably worn away over the years and many of them were defaced over time. This one is in Paul’s Bay and I can’t unfortunately read what it used to say.

  • Malta – South Eastern Region – Birgu – Cafe Rouge

    This Italian restaurant isn’t part of the UK chain, but is an independent restaurant located near to the harbour area in Cospicua, near Birgu. It was rather busier than I had expected, although the reviews for the restaurant are excellent, and it transpired that I was fortunate to get a table. I arrived around ten minutes before they were serving lunch, but by the time they had offered the menu and taken the order, the wait wasn’t noticeable.

    I didn’t order this tower of beer.

    It didn’t seem right to sit in an Italian restaurant eating pasta without having a glass of white wine. Since I don’t understand wine, I just order the house wine which nearly always tastes fine and is just at the price point that I prefer.

    This is the homemade tortellini Maltese sausage pasta filled with local sausage, spinach, blue cheese, walnuts and a sun-dried tomato paste. It was as well presented as pasta can be and cheese was served alongside for me to sprinkle on. The pasta was excellent, the blue cheese was evident by taste and the sausage meat had a pleasant flavour to it. The walnuts added texture and the tomato flavour was rich, with the portion size being sufficiently generous.

    Service was attentive and polite throughout, with a staff member noticing I had entered and helped me to find a table. I struggled slightly to get the bill at the end of the meal, but that was more because I think they were trying not to rush customers, and I was hardly in a massive rush to get to the next museum. The prices were a little expensive, but that was perhaps inevitable for a fashionable harbourside restaurant.

    I can only imagine how busy this restaurant must get during the summer months, and it’s clearly in a wealthy area given the amount of yachts in the nearby harbour.

  • Malta – South Eastern Region – Tarxien Temples

    The Tarxien Temples are four megalithic structures which were constructed between 3600 and 2500BC, although were then repurposed between 2400 and 1500BC. The map above shows just how complex the structures are in their size and layout.

    The site was discovered in 1914 after a farmer ploughing his field reported finding large stones. The farmer would have known for a long time about these irritating stones interrupting his farming arrangements, but in 1913 the Tarxien Hypogeum had been discovered nearby and he thought that this site might have a similar archaeological interest. He was right.

    If I’m being honest, this really doesn’t help. All over the site there are more modern reconstructions of what the temple would have looked like. In this instance it’s apparent what is old and what is new, but in other parts of the site it’s confusing. In places, there were deliberate attempts to make the newer additions look original, which has all taken away from the experience. The 1950s restoration was also botched as they decided to use concrete to top off the stones, which has now damaged the original limestone.

    There’s a large canopy over the site to avoid any deterioration of the exposed stone.

    Cats have plonked themselves over parts of the site, knowing that they’re unlikely to be disturbed since they’re in an area that the public can’t get to.

    This chamber was discovered in 1921 by Thomas Ashby and was secured by the stone lid which is located next to it. I can imagine the excitement that Ashby must have had whilst nervously opening up the lid to see the delights that lay within. And I can also imagine his irritation when he discovered that the chamber was empty.

    Steps coming down into the temple.

    Visitors can walk all the way around the site on an elevated walkway, and then also through the site.

    This is the floor of the temple, made from thick stone and so not just the compacted earth floor that might otherwise have been expected.

    More views over the site.

    This cubbyhole was opened up and the archaeologists found flint knives and burnt animal bones inside.

    Some of the stones have been taken inside into the small museum area located by the ticket office, which has ensured that they don’t get too worn by the weather and local elements. If you use your imagination, and primarily read the description by the side, you can see boats and rafts on the stone which is on the right hand side. This is of note as it might be one of the earliest representations of a boat which is in existence anywhere.

    I have a rather limited knowledge of ancient temples, with “rather limited” perhaps being better defined as “no knowledge at all”. It was an interesting site and I liked how visitors can walk around the site on the walkways, but I didn’t have much of a clue what I was looking at. The leaflet given to visitors has four items to look for, although three of these aren’t even at the site (they’re at the National Museum in Valletta, where I did actually see them) and there’s a limited sense of history for me looking at a copy that someone had made thirty years ago.

  • Malta – South Eastern Region – Birgu – Steps

    Just two random photos of Birgu streets which I thought looked and felt quite atmospheric. The Knights of St. John first settled in Birgu when they were kicked out of Rhodes by the Ottoman Empire, and steps were designed so that Knights could run up and down them in armour.

  • Malta – South Eastern Region – Birgu – Hiring a Boat

    We hire a boat every year for Hike Norfolk to go around the Norfolk Broads on. I admit it’s not quite like this one though….

    I’m also not entirely sure that we could afford the weekly rates….

  • Malta – South Eastern Region – Birgu – The Inquisitor’s Palace

    Located in Vittoriosa, this is one of the best examples of a former Inquisitor’s Palace building still in existence. It was unfortunately mauled about a bit internally by the British when we had taken control of Malta from the early part of the nineteenth century, but there is plenty of history remaining.

    The Knights of St. John built this palace to be used as the civil law courts  in the 1530s, shortly after they had moved from Rhodes. They built it on top of an earlier building, of which some of the above foundations are still visible. When the new capital of Valletta was constructed the courts moved there, so the inquisitor, or someone who checks up on how the Catholic faith is being obeyed, moved in four years later.

    Part of a former ceiling, looked down on from above.

    The grand staircase added in 1733 by Inquisitor Francesco Stoppani.

    An external well which was constructed in the mid-seventeenth century to be used as the depository of the communal cell’s toilet.

    A rather graphic depiction of Jesus, the top one is made from wood and dates to the seventeenth century, whilst the bottom one is made from papier-mache and dates to the nineteenth century.

    This is a twentieth century replica piece of clothing which I don’t entirely understand. Similar items were worn by individuals as an act of penance, so I’m guessing it’s for that purpose…

    The torture chamber, which the museum makes clear was rarely used and it was only ever in operation to try and extract confessions rather than as a punishment. The inquisitors in Malta weren’t seen as brutal as those in other countries and the aim was to encourage people to follow good traditional Catholic values rather than to punish them excessively.

    The Grand Inquisitor’s Chamber, where decisions would have been made and sentences announced.

    The inquisitors believed in secrecy and these are the steps which went up to the Grand Inquisitor’s Chamber. The window on the left of the steps looks into the torture chamber and would be closed to prevent anyone from seeing who was walking up the stairs.

    The entrance to one of the many cells, which is irritatingly low down.

    Graffiti in the cells scratched into the limestone by inmates over the centuries.

    Hygiene in the cells was considered important and there was drainage and the facilities to deposit waste in every cell.

    This is an extensive palace and there was plenty of see, including the former kitchens, the chapel (which the British turned into a corridor), the bedroom of the Inquisitor, the bedroom of the head warder and numerous other prison cells. It all really became a little bit of a maze, with the directions not always entirely clear. There was also a permanent display about Christmas and I didn’t quite understand the relevance of that to the whole museum.

    The inquisitors were not the harsh men which they have more recently been made out to be, they were simply the enforcers of the church which was immensely powerful at the time. The inquisitors also used the role as career enhancing in many cases, there were 62 inquisitors in total of whom 27 became cardinals and two became Pope. The two men who were elevated to the position of Pope were Fabio Chigi from 1655 until 1667 and Antonio Pignatelli from 1691 until 1700, with the former being guilty of some appalling nepotism, whilst the latter put an end to the practice.

    I’m sure though that more could be done with the museum, as some of the items marked as being original clearly weren’t and there was frequently no explanation as to what a particular room was for. They have far more rooms than they have exhibitions and some exhibits were rather padded out and not particularly informative.

    However, it was a fascinating building which an immense history, one which has fortunately managed to avoid being damaged in wars or changed too much internally. It’s just a shame that they didn’t really explain the architecture of more of the rooms, I was more engaged with the history of the building than looking at displays about Christmas.

  • Malta – Gozo – Victoria – Air Raid Shelters

    Located under the Cittadella is this 32-room complex constructed during the Second World War to be used as an air raid shelter. The complex fell into disuse recently, but a €50,000 renewal was announced in early 2018 to open them back up again. Unfortunately, the plan to re-open them towards the end of 2018 doesn’t seem to have worked out. I’m basing that on the fact that it’s 2019 and they’re still shut…. Anyway, at least work is on-going.

    An information panel by the entrance. If I can get back to Gozo in a few years to see the new museum, I can hopefully come here as well.