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The temple entrance, there are eight similar chambers

Ancient Remains

Today we picked up a hire car so we can explore the island. The "must do" place to visit is the ancient site of the Ggantia Temples which date from between 5,000 and 3,500 BC and are huge buildings. They are slightly older than Stonehenge but pose the same questions, how on earth did they move such large blocks. There was some evidence of round, cannon ball sized stones used as bearings but even so they would have taken a great deal of team work to put them in place.
The were made by the “Temple People” but no one has any idea what the buildings were used for. It was emphasised that whilst they are considered as somewhere for rituals that does not mean religion. Going to the pub could be considered a ritual, so is attending a council meeting or a concert.

Why can't more telecoms companies be as imaginative as this

Some small effigies were discovered at the site, including the fatties we saw in the archaeological museum a few days ago, very few are shown as male or female. The people who built these structures had not discovered metal but they did use flint tools, flint does not occur naturally on the island so they were presumably trading with either Malta or Sicily but they must have felt secure as there is no evidence of weapons or fortifications. They mysteriously disappeared around 2,500 BC, later some Bronze age settlers arrived.

Next stop, which we found by chance, was a semaphore tower built in 1848 which has been converted into a telecom tower and on Mondays and Fridays you can climb up inside to admire the view. No health and safety restrictions, you just climb up a metal ladder inside with no hand rail, great fun.

We then took the wrong road and ended up at Dahlet Qorrot Beach, a nice little harbour with little fishermen's stores cut into the sandstone which are shown in the picture at the top of this page.

All the shops here have lots of fruit and vegetables on display, according to the news those of you in the UK are starving, let me know if we need smuggle home any tomatoes or cabbages next week.