Ħaġar Qim, over 5000 years old, is found at the top of a promontory with a fertile plain to its east and garrigue sloping down to the sea to the west. 500m downhill from Ħaġar Qim one finds Mnajdra, a contemporary building, probably used by the same community given its proximity.
The late-Neolithic site of Ħaġar Qim consists of a group of monumental megalithic buildings, located on the crest of a ridge. To the west, the site commands views over the open sea, while to the east, it overlooks the edge of a large plain.
The main building of Ħaġar Qim is unusual with features and doorways along its external wall. The floor of the central passage inside the building is paved in stone slabs while the floors in the chambers branching off this passage are made from beaten earth. The original low-relief carvings, copies of which are nowadays in this building, are displayed at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta. Doorways inside the buildings are either trilithon, built of two upright stone blocks with a lintel and threshold, or an opening cut into a single megalith, known as a ‘porthole’ doorway. Parts of these buildings were originally covered by a corbelled roof, made of successive courses of megaliths, each one smaller than the one below.
Mnajdra consists of three buildings, constructed in both globigerina and coralline limestone. The first and oldest structure is the small three-apsed structure. The South building, with its concave façade was next to be completed followed by the Central building which was constructed on an artificial platform between the two earlier buildings. The South building’s doorway is aligned with sunrise during the Spring and Autumn equinoxes. During the Winter and Summer solstices, the beams of the rising sun pass along the sides of the main doorway hitting two decorated slabs within the first chamber. Apart from the central passage leading to chambers on either side, the buildings at Mnajdra also include tiny chambers constructed within the thickness of the walls.
Both Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra are protected from the elements by shelters. Since these sites were excavated less than two centuries ago, their slow deterioration has been witnessed at first hand. Shelters were therefore constructed in 2008 and are intended to slow down the impact of natural elements on the rate of deterioration of these sites until alternative means of preservation are tested and implemented.
What a wonderful site to visit – so much of interest to see and I did enjoy learning all about it. Amazing.
It is an amazing site and our journey there and back was an adventure in itself.
It is amazing to know that Malta has these old sites. But then over the centuries lots of people landed on Malta and moved on again. I love to see all the influences of these different cultures. Like the English in the last century.
Wonderful pictures, Cherry
(just wondering why you don’t have a secure website?)
Thank you, the history of Malta is fascinating.
With regards to my website it is no less secure that when I created it in 2009. I will try and explain.
What has changed is what I would call industry protocols. Originally an https certificate was only required by sites that were selling goods and where private information such as credit card details and addresses (and other detailed information) could be added into a form. On a non secure site these details can be intercepted.
Any site that that was not selling goods did not require this certificate because no personal information was asked for or required.
The non secure alert refers to the comments ‘form’ which means that anything typed in there may be intercepted. But everything typed in there (with the exception of email address) is intended to be public and displays in the comments section of the post.
I have been looking into sorting out the problem alerts but it is not easy.
Even Shutterchance hasn’t got it worked out yet. Since the recent changes the comment section there doesn’t work optimally.
I see that https has now been added to my blog (not sure how long it has been like that).
Now I just need figure out how to stop the alerts that are related to the comments and search fields.
Thank you for explaining this to me, Cherry. I was at Nikkie’s post and there your URLl worked for me (still not secure) but the URL you fill in in Shutterchance has indeed the https but not the www and it takes you nowhere. The URL to Nikkie is an HTTP. I hope you can figure it out. I know that a blogger from France worked it out to go from insecure to secure. https://www.pascalxld.fr/blog/ maybe he knows what to do??
I have just tried to sort out the linking issue from your blog to mine. I don’t think it has worked, Shutterchance seems to have changed what I typed in. It has removed the www. and put https in front instead.
I still need work on the other issue.
Oh, I didn’t know they also had a Stonehenge there on that tiny island!
Even more complex than the one you have here.
They have more than one, although I didn’t get to see the other sites.
Likewise, we have Avebury too.
Avebury is actually better than Stonehenge.
At least, you get to touch and feel those stones.
And it’s free to visit the place.