The Maltese temples
Free-standing stone buildings on a small island, older than the pyramids.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 300 years
- Known to
- ± 100 years
- Era
- Neolithic, Holocene
From around 3600 BCE the inhabitants of Malta and Gozo build a series of monumental temple complexes — Ggantija, Hagar Qim, Tarxien — with corbelled stone walls, carved spirals and colossal fat-bodied figures. The Hal Saflieni Hypogeum is an underground burial complex cut through three levels of rock containing the remains of thousands. The culture collapses abruptly around 2500 BCE for reasons that remain unclear.