All the megalithic temples of Malta have long been discovered and investigated by archaeologists, but these buildings still raise a lot of questions from scientists around the world.
The main mystery of Maltese temples lies in their origin: these structures were built long before the Egyptian pyramids (according to official calculations) - in the Bronze Age. Their age is more than 5000 years.
It is curious that all these structures were built without the use of iron tools. Each megalithic temple complex developed independently, while the scale of all megaliths is so grandiose that the locals believed that they were built by giant giants.
Nothing is known about the builders of these unique majestic buildings - these people disappeared without a trace a millennium after the temples were built. Today, thanks to the latest research, scientists have put forward new hypotheses that can probably shed light on the mystery of megalithic temples.
First of all, it should be said that the construction of temples in Malta began long before the beginning of construction in continental Europe (the oldest known - Cairn de Barnenez, Finistere, France, 4500 BC), which means that the Maltese megaliths are in many ways prototypes for monuments from other regions. Scientists have established that the cultures of prehistoric Malta are largely associated with Sicily, therefore archaeologists suggest that Malta was the cult center of the Sicilian Neolithic Paleometal peoples.
All megalithic temples of Malta are on the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage Sites. The oldest is the complex of two Ggantija temples on the island of Gozo. Both of these temples are built from blocks of coral limestone.
Some of the blocks weigh about fifty tons and are five meters long. The temples have five apses each (an apse is the protrusion of a building, semicircular, faceted or rectangular in plan, covered with a semi-dome or closed semi-vault), connected by a corridor that leads to the trifolium (this is the name of a symmetrical figure bounded by three identical circles, the centers of which are located at the tops equilateral triangle).
Another grandiose temple of Malta - Hajar, stands on the top of the hill. The decor of the temple is of great interest - the walls of the structure are decorated with deities and animals carved from obsidian and silicon. Between the cliffs of the southern coast of the island of Malta, there is a complex of three temples - Mnajdra, which resembles a leaf of a clover in its layout (this is the tripolia). The oldest is the upper temple. It is a three-apse structure made of coral limestone.
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The Lower Temple, built according to exact astronomical laws, is of great interest to scientists. So, according to the architects' plan on September twenty-second and March twenty, the sun's rays pass exactly along a certain line in the temple. The middle temple was erected between the two above mentioned in the Tarshien period.
The earliest megaliths include the Ta'Hajrat temples, supposedly built on the site of a former village and distinguished by a non-standard layout. The most complex architectural complex of all the temples in Malta is Tarshin, dating back to 3600-2500. BC e. and consisting of four megalithic structures. In the 1960s, scientists also discovered the temples of Sorrow, which are poorly preserved.
It is important to note that the change in the temple periods did not lead to the destruction or neglect of the previous temples; the local population continued to use them for burials, which indicates a significant continuity. Among the most widespread hypotheses about the reasons for the decline of the megalithic temples of Malta, the following should be highlighted: aridization of the climate, civil war, foreign influence, depletion of land or other natural resources of Malta or Sicily.
The flourishing of the culture of the period of megalithic temples remains unclear for scientists. Thus, in Malta there is no indisputable evidence that the island was inhabited in the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic. The Neolithic appears here as if out of nowhere - without preliminary phases, while it includes the main achievements of civilization of that time: ceramics, agriculture and cattle breeding. The early (pre-temple) Neolithic of Malta is represented by the Ghar Dalam Cave, in which the earliest evidence of the Neolithic dates back to 5400 BC. e.
And only recently, scientists have noted a certain feature in the location of the temples, which can shed light on the mystery of ancient structures. In particular, archaeologists have discovered a burial in the form of a cromlech (ring of stones), located in the center of several megalithic temples. During the study, scientists noticed that several more burials of the archipelago are located near the temples.
As a result, the researchers were able to make a surprising discovery - all the temple complexes of the islands are subject to one principle of the building system, where the burial structure is located in the center and the temples are at some distance around. This guess will allow scientists to organize a systematic search for new, previously hidden, buildings.
It seems surprising that in such a densely developed archipelago like Malta, archaeologists still find new megaliths, albeit in a rather deplorable form. The fact is that many of the buildings were pulled apart for construction in subsequent times, and some megalithic structures, according to scientists, are located in built-up areas, and special research by archaeologists is needed to find them.
It must also be said that recently scientists have come to an interesting conclusion. According to experts, the megalithic structures of Malta served as prototypes of the mythological Champs Elysees, where, according to the ideas of the ancient Greeks, the souls of heroes beloved by the gods live after death. This kingdom of the dead, much like the Egyptian fields of Ialu, was located on an island west of Greece.
Scientists note that the penetration of Europeans into Malta can be indicated by those found after 3000 BC. e. isolated cases of cremation, since cremation is often one of the fairly reliable indicators of their occurrence in Europe.
In particular, urn cremations in cysts and dolmens, characteristic of the next phase - the Tarscienne necropolis - indicate the penetration of the synthetic culture of Castelluccio into Malta, containing both megalithic (cysts, dolmens), and Indo-European (cremation) and Balkan-Danube (urns) elements. …
Experts have established that during the Bronze - Early Iron Age, Malta experienced several waves of migration, as a result of which the continuity with the megalithic peoples was lost. It is likely that it was with these migrations that contacts were established with the entire Mediterranean, in particular with Egypt. The records of the conquests of Minos in the west, preserved in ancient sources, can also serve as evidence of the penetration of the Cretan population into Malta.
Thus, today, thanks to the work of archaeologists, scientists are gradually getting closer to the answer to the question of who and for what purpose built the mysterious megalithic structures of Malta.