This morning we did laundry and pegged it out on a line that was in an attached courtyard. The rain yesterday gave way to a beautiful morning, bright and sunny. After pegging out the laundry, we got ready for today’s adventure. In addition to revisiting Selmun Point, another reason Christine picked Xemxija for a week’s stay was to hike the Xemxija Heritage Trail. We had both read about this in 2016 and it sounded so interesting. The Heritage Trail contains 20 sites of archeological importance. In hiking the trail one travels through the corridors of history covering approximately 6,000 years.
Down the hill we had seen a sign for the Roman Road and so we walked to that sign and then up a hill to the start of the Heritage Trail.
The first really striking thing we came to was the Roman Road, also known as the Pilgrims’ Way. This is a well-preserved section of a Punic-Roman (I had to look up Punic; its another word for Carthaginians) road and is over 2,000 years old. The road has cut limestone kerbing to hold up the road surface and a channel was dug beside the road to deal with water run-off. The Romans even figured out that they could direct the water from one side to the other by cutting a channel across the road. The road is also known as the Pilgrims’ Way and was used by people making a pilgrimage to Mellieha where Our Lady’s Sanctuary Church is. Along the way, when the pilgrims would stop to rest they would carve crosses in the stone.
Just as we were starting on our Heritage Trail hike we came upon a man picking up litter. We stopped to chat and I thought I had seen his photo online in an article about the Heritage Trail. I asked him if he was responsible for the map and brochure related to the trail, and indeed he was the guy in the article. His name is Frans Scerri and for 23 years he pretty much has been personally responsible for getting St. Paul’s Bay Council to support and fund the upkeep of the trail. We had a lovely chat with Mr. Scerri and he even gave us one of the brochures. He comes twice a week to pick up trash that thoughtless people throw on the ground.
In addition to the Roman Road, the dry stone/rubble walls near the road were built by the Romans. I love rubble walls, and these were beauties.
Next came a Menhir, a very large vertical stone, like a monolith. This stone is likely from the Neolithic period. Malta is rich with Neolithic temple ruins. This menhir stands near several cave tombs and was probably related to cult worship of the dead.
The first cave that we saw and entered is called Cave of the Galley. Originally, it must have been a prehistoric tomb from either the Neolithic or early Roman period. The entrance is constructed in a manner reminiscent of some of the temples we visited in 2016. On a stone in the door jamb is an etching of a war galley. No one knows the significance of this or when it might have been etched. But common thought it that a sailor came ashore and found the cave and lived in it for a while. He must have been short, though, because in this cave, we couldn’t stand up straight.
Next came the thing I wanted to see the most, the apiaries. Our friend JoAnn is a beekeeper, so I was really interested to see and learn something about the Roman apiary. Apiaries are buildings/caves where bees were kept for honey production. Malta has always been known for its first-class honey and during Roman times, honey that was produced in Malta was shipped all throughout the Roman empire.
The first apiary we saw was beautifully and artistically constructed with large stones and arches. The apiary is sectioned into alcoves each containing two stone shelves with a terracotta beehive behind each hole. The hives were lying on their side with the neck right behind the outside hole. The hives were blocked with pieces of wood which the bees sealed from inside with wax. To harvest the honey, the farmer would remove the wood and cut the layer off the honeycomb, leaving sufficient honey for the bees to survive.
A short distance away from the Roman apiary was another apiary. This one was a repurposed cave for beekeeping. Inside the cave you can see terracotta pipes which served as hives in which the bees made their honeycomb.
Near the apiaries is a 1,000-year-old carob tree. It was an amazing tree whose circumference is around 24 feet. It has many main trunks embedded in the rocks and its branches are twisted. It’s quite a sculpture. The carob is indigenous to Malta and grows in rocky places having shallow soil. It is an evergreen. Its fruit was the main source of fodder for livestock. Also, a sugar is extracted from the seed pods when boiled to make a syrup which is then formed into blocks and allowed to harden. This becomes a carmel-like candy. The syrup is also a home remedy for coughs. And bees love its flowers, so it makes sense that there are apiaries nearby.
We passed by some burial caves and then to the remains of a Neolithic temple. For whatever reason, this temple was not preserved, as many others have been in Malta. It dates back to 2,800 B.C.
At a corbelled hut, we stop in the shade for a picnic. A corbelled hut, known as a girna, is a structure built of stones that provided a farmer with a place to store tools, or produce, or young animals. Not thought to be built for habitation, they did provide some type of shelter when needed, like during bad weather. The closely fitted stones provided a strong structure including a self-supporting roof. Most were round and as we travel around Malta we can see giren out in the fields.
We passed by some Punic tombs which were likely used by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians as burial tombs. The ones we saw had rectangular openings carved in the rock but were down these holes. They’re called shaft and chamber tombs.
Then we came to a farmer’s hut that has been reconstructed using the original stones. Again, the amazing thing about these structures is that no mortar is used and all the stones fit perfectly together. If there is a crack, smaller stones are used to fill in the spaces.
Nearby was a cave that had very large chambers. Apparently, the cave was used for habitation right up until about the 1930s. These caves were well hidden because of their placement into the rocks, with rubble walls completely encompassing the caves. They were very large inside with high ceilings and had a half wall separating the cave into rooms.
Next was a big hole in the ground that was a Roman granary where grain was stored. It was like a reverse silo, instead of up, the storage area went down. It probably had a wooden cover in Roman times. Just outside of Valletta in Floriana is a very large Roman granary that has about 25 capped openings down into underground silos. Later, this silo was converted into a water holding cistern.
There were more Neolithic tombs nearby and then we came upon a more modern structure. It was a WWII defense post. This pillbox structure was used as a look-out post. The north of Malta was pretty open to invasion and the British not only built defense posts, they built a wall across Malta to stop potential invading troops.
The final place we explored was the Roman Baths. This site proves to be the best-preserved Roman baths on Malta. The baths with their pools, cold and hot rooms were cut into the rocks in a steep cliff overlooking Mistra Valley. We had to climb down some steep narrow steps to get down to the baths, but it was worth the effort. Upon entering the baths there was first a large hall that would have been two pools for cold dips, called a tepidarium. Through an arched corridor was the caldarium, which is where the hot pools would have been. There were signs of blackened walls where fires would have heated up the water. The view sitting on a bench outside the baths was just spectacular and we sat for a while just enjoying being there.
There was just one more thing to see and that was cart ruts. Basically, they look like cart tracks consisting of parallel grooves cut into bare rock. The weird thing is that the width and depth of the ruts varies around Malta. Cart ruts can be found all over Malta and in one area, known as Clapham Junction, there are many intersecting cart ruts. Archeologists differ in their ideas about these cart ruts and theories abound. Nonetheless, they are interesting to see and one can speculate as to why they are there and how they might have been used.
That was the end of the Heritage Trail. It was a really special hike made even more so with meeting and talking with Frans Scerri. And it was a perfect weather day for the hike and a great way to end our time in Xemxija.
We stopped in the Xemxija Café and bought a takeaway dinner. While waiting for the food, we had a beverage and sat outside the café. Once home, we puttered around doing things on our computers. We then enjoyed our dinner out on the terrace. It was a full moon and the moon and clouds gave us a wonderful show. All in all, this was a perfect day.
On to “our” flat in Sliema tomorrow and the final leg of our trip.