Today’s outing was to the southwestern part of Malta. The geology of Malta is that there are 5 layers of limestone with the hardest layer being coralline limestone. One of the places that this limestone is visible is along a section called the Dingli cliffs. One gets the best look at this from the sea, which we’ll see when we do a cruise around the island. But we wanted to walk along the top of Dingli cliffs and take in the view.
To get there, we rode the #202 bus to Rabat and transferred to the #201 bus. We were familiar with the #201 from our return from the Mdina Medieval Festival and we had an unexpected hour-and-a half ride over hill and dale when we thought we’d just zip from Rabat to the airport bus terminal. That ride helped us know we could get to Dingli Cliffs and also to the temples we wanted to visit.
We got off the bus practically at the edge of Dingli Cliffs on a road named Triq Panoramika. This road goes right along the cliff edge for about a mile, and panorama is just what we saw.
One of the reasons for this visit is that Christine’s father worked at an intelligence station in Dingli during and after the war. There along the cliffs was the Dingli Radar station, which today is used for air traffic control. We found a sign indicating that under the “golf ball” structure was the original radio intercept station where Christine’s father must have worked.
A little farther down the road we came to St. Mary Magdalen chapel. There has been a chapel on this location since the 1400s, with the present chapel built in 1646.
Here’s a video of the view from the deck behind the chapel.
Up high along the road you can see nice panoramas, but a really interesting aspect is to look down over the edge and, surprisingly, you don’t see the sea, you see farm fields. These little farm plots are nestled in along the cliffs on terraces. From the farm fields, then, is the drop off to the water. I was fascinated by this and spent a lot of time looking down at the fields. What makes farming successful here is the blue clay layer of the limestone. It has the ability to store water and so less water is needed for crops because the soil remains more moist for long periods after rain.
We also could see Verdala Palace from the road. This was a Grand Masters palace built in the 1600s, a summer retreat. Nearby is Buskett Gardens, which is the only woodlands on the island, which the knights used as a hunting ground. The palace is Malta’s president’s summer residence.
Here are a few more photos around Dingli Cliffs.
After a nice picnic perched on a rock near the edge of the cliffs, we walked to a bus stop to catch the #201 to the temples. Unfortunately, we waited over an hour for a bus. I had looked up times online. Also, at each stop is a poster of bus times, but they are totally different than those posted online. We had seen a bus go by while we were having lunch, so we did a time check to calculate when the next bus would arrive. That didn’t work either. After a very long wait, during which we sang the entire Rogers and Hammerstein’s songbook, and a wait with a fantastic view, the bus finally came. So on to Hagar Qim and Mnajdra temples.
The prehistoric site of Hagar Qim consists of a group of monumental megalithic buildings. These were built during the late Neolithic period, 3,600-3,000 BC. Similar buildings have been found in over 20 sites around Malta and Gozo. Although they are called “temples” today, very little is really know about what they were and how they were used.
As I’ve said before, ruins often look like piles of rocks and it is difficult to discern the layout. At Tarxien, there was an elevated platform around the circumference which helped to get a feel for the architectural footprint. Not so with Hagar Qim, or Mnajdra for that matter. So we have to suffice with a drawing.
There were more interesting architectural features here than at Tarxien. We saw “porthole” doors, a decorated altar, part of the roofing structure, called corbelled, and many other details that were interesting.
Great tents have been built over these temple sites to protect the stone from further deterioration. The soft limestone, called Globigerina, is still used in building today because it is easier to cut. The Globigerina limestone is the second layer and sits atop the harder coralline limestone, but left open to the elements, it deteriorates, and this was quite visible on the sea side of the temple.
About one-third of a mile from Hagar Qim is another temple site, Mnajdra Temples. While Hagar Qim was built on the crest of a ridge, Mnajdra was down nestled in a hollow closer to the edge of the cliffs. Fran, walking from Hagar Qim to Mnajdra was all downhill (who commented we spend a lot of time walking uphill). But of course, it was all uphill on the return!
The layout of this temple has been of great interest to many because the way it is situated demonstrates knowledge of astronomy because of how the light hits certain spots in the temple on the solstices and the equinoxes. It’s not known what the purposes of these temples were, but findings indicate both had some sort of ritualistic animal sacrificing. No human bones were found, however, so they were not necropolises, like the Hypogeum.
The coralline (hardest) limestone was used in the construction of the outer walls, so there is less erosion visible. The decorative slabs were quite interesting, as was one small engraving that rather looked like a picture of the doorway to the temple.
The information center had some good information, but these temples are curious because no one really knows why they were constructed, by whom, and for what purpose. And as we learned at the Hypogeum and at Tarxien, the temple builders disappeared in about 2,500 BC. And no one knows why. But clearly, these are some of the oldest buildings on earth, if not the oldest. UNESCO has designated them “masterpieces” and world heritage sites.
By now, it was late afternoon and we needed to make our way home. We were going to take the bus to the airport, but then decided we would back track to Rabat. Unfortunately, we had to wait over an hour for the bus. In Rabat, we were going to have dinner in a restaurant, but we didn’t like it so we kept moving. We weren’t able to get on the #202 back to Sliema because it was full, so we had to wait another hour. In Mdina, there was an international food festival with all the set ups down In the moat around the fortress walls, but no one seemed to be eating (after all, it was only 6:30). Dinner is often well after 7:00 p.m. here. We walked back and forth on the terrace around the moat, strolled into Mdina to check if the pastizzi shop was open (no), checked out a restaurant (not serving yet), so we settled for a piece of pizza from a kiosk. The bus eventually came, and back to Sliema we went. Just as we were rounding Balluta Bay, we saw a long line of city buses. We didn’t know why they were all stopped and lined up. The driver said we should all get out. I thought maybe the bus drivers were striking or something, but as we walked down Tower Road to our flat, we could see police cars and fire trucks. Apparently, there was something going on in a hotel just a few doors down from us. Traffic was at a standstill and there was all kinds of commotion. But eventually, all the responders left, so it couldn’t have been too serious.
We were safely in our little flat, dog tired and just a little cranky. But, another fantastic day touring around Malta and seeing such interesting things.