The harbour of Marsaxlokk
The temple site of Tarxien
Today we visited two more temple sites, the first, Tarxien, is similar to yesterdays and the second, Hal Saflieni Hypogeum (a posh word for underground chamber) was discovered in 1902 by a builder who was constructing houses on the site and suddenly found an underground chamber. The complex was used to deposit human remains (possibly 7,000 bodies) and dates from between 3,600 and 2,500 BC. It seems to have been repeatedly extended, perhaps as each area filled up with human remains. After it was first excavated it became a tourist attraction, the walls soon started to go green with mould and the site deteriorated.
"Fake" pillars and lintels
It was then closed off and a system of air management was introduced to preserve the site. One aspect of this is that only 10 visitors are allowed each hour so 70 people a day.
I would like to say it was good planning on my part but luckily we enquired about tickets on the first day of our holiday and got the last two places today. The sign at the entrance today said that the next available slots are on 16th March! You are not allowed to take cameras or phones into the chamber, this ensures that Heritage Malta can make even more money selling you postcards but in fairness it does allow everyone to see what is being described and allows you to concentrate on not banging your head. They don’t give you hard hats, it may be they worry the hard plastic would damage the ceilings whilst a soft head doesn’t.
All solid rock!
The people who carved out the chambers made them look like the stone temples above ground. The pillars and lintels you can see in the pictures (borrowed from the web) aren’t real, they are shapes cut into the stone. Why go to all that trouble? The decorations are still visible painted in red ochre, how the people who painted them lit the chambers is not known, apparently there are no scorch marks indicating naked lights. The question we, and I guess every one else asks is - how many other underground complexes are there waiting to be discovered? An interesting end to the holiday.
Food - Over the last four nights we have been pushing the boat (bank balance) out on fine dining. The owner of our hotel seems to be a bit of a foodie and has pointed us in the direction of three top quality restaurants which are next door to each other. Two have Michelin Stars and the third is working on it. Sundays restaurant was in a touristy area so a bit dearer but still good, getting anywhere to eat on Sunday nights is always a problem the world over. I made another faux par (remember the artist in Valletta) and mentioned to our host that I had trouble booking the fanciest of the restaurants on line and had to resort to the telephone (It Will Never Catch On – now available in paperback).
Above ground temple passage
It turned out that he built the web site as a favour to his friend the chef. Oops - after breakfast one morning I repeated what I had done on the site, the problem was identified and we became firm friends. The snag was this was reported to the restaurant owner whose staff were all told to “look after” these troublesome Brits so they did not complain when we hung our scruffy coats on their nice window catches and were were asked “is everything OK” at 20 second intervals throughout the meal. I was also forced to drink two different glasses of complimentary grappa at the end of the meal and being a philistine preferred the rougher one.
In Malta, being a flattish island there is a shortage of water so all drinking water is imported, mostly from Italy but a surprising amount from the UK. One very fancy Italian bottle had a label saying “Best before end” which is probably good advice as well as saying “Arsenic Absent” which was comforting but why they told us about “Electric Conductivity” unless we were going to pour it on the floor and stick our fingers in the light socket I don’t know.
Tomorrow we fly home worst luck to the freezing cold of the UK.
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