Prehistoric Malta & Gozo

Beginning in the town of Mġarr, we visit the two conjoined temples of Ta’ Haġrat and Mġarr built during the 4^th Millennium BC. We continue to the village site of Skorba which has made a significant contribution to our understanding of early Maltese prehistory providing a stratigraphy from c5000 to 1500BC. We spend the afternoon in Mdina – The Silent City – which served as the island capital from antiquity through to the Medieval period and end the day seeing some of the renowned ‘cart ruts’ in the hillside at Buskett – features that occur on both Malta and Gozo and are comprised of parallel grooves which have been worn into the bedrock, sometimes for long distances.

A day spent exploring Valetta on foot. Founded by the Knights Hospitallers following the Great Siege of 1565, this UNESCO World Heritage site occupies a commandeering position over two harbours. We begin with the exceptional array of artefacts from Malta’s unique prehistoric periods in the Archaeological Museum from man’s first arrival on the island, up to the end of the Bronze Age. We also visit St. John’s Cathedral and the Grand Master’s Palace with facades of some of the many Auberges of the Knights.

Today we visit the magnificent temple sites at  Haġar-Qim and Mnajdra, megalithic structures which sit clustered close together at the top of a promontory with superb views over the sea.  The internal arrangement of Haġar Qim is highly complex involving what are probably many building and reconstruction phases and the lower temple at Mnajdra is astronomically aligned. Their use of as religious or ceremonial places have been determined through the on-site discoveries of animal bones, sacrificial flint, knives and rope holes, possibly used to hold sacrificial animals.

In the afternoon, access permitting, we explore the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and funerary complex, a vast subterranean complex, outstandingly presented.  It seems that the monument was in use for most of the 4^th millennium BC. Nearby, we will visit Tarxien megalithic site, one of the most elaborate of all the Megalithic temples on the island which has undergone extensive excavation and restoration.

This morning we visit Għar Dalam, the oldest of Malta’s monuments. This water worn tunnel is approximately 15.5m above sea level and 45m deep and accessible for about 80m on foot. Here large quantities of Pleistocene faunal remains (including dwarf hippos and elephants) were found, together with evidence for earliest known human activity on the island. In the afternoon we will explore Xemxija where we will walk along the heritage trail and seek out some of the rock cut tombs dotted around the hillside. Here we will also so the Romano Punic apiaries built into a natural cave recess. The honeycombs would have hung in vertical panels in their small chambers within easy reach of the bee keepers.

We take the short crossing by ferry to Gozo, associated by locals with Homer as the island home of Calypso, Odysseus’ temptress and captor. The pace of life is slower here and the landscape greener. We spend all day on the island where we see Gġantija, a prehistoric megalithic complex of exceptional grandeur; the Xagħra Stone Circle a significant funerary complex and the ruins Santa Verna, a megalithic site left to the ravages of time. We will also visit the town of Victoria and the Archaeology Museum which provides a small but important window onto the earliest cultures of Gozo up to the arrival of the Knights of St. John.

Transfer to the airport for our flight home.