STONE AGE BUILDING INDEX
STONE AGE BUILDING
STANDING STONES
NEWGRANGE
STONEHENGE
MALTA'S MEGALITHIC MARVELS
introduction
timeline
temple sites
ggantjia
hager qim
mnajdra
hypogeum
tarxien
magna mater
magna mater-myth
gallery
SKARA BRAE
HUNEBEDDEN
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Ggantija
It is said that Ggantija (meaning "Giantess' Tower") is the most impressive of the Maltese Temples and can be found on the island of Gozo (or: G'awdex as the Maltese call it). I cannot confirm it, because I have not seen it yet. But it is a fact that the temple of Ggantija are the oldest man made building that were found on the earth. It dates back an astonishing 5600 years back and was built around 3600 BCE.
According to Elmar's Travel Handbook 'Malta' Ggantija is "the most imposing megalithic temple complex at Malta. It is built in soft globegirine limestone on the top of a low hill; the corridors are mainly made of a more solid material: coralbased limestone." The complex has two temples enclosed by a outer wall and measures 1,000 sq. metres.
There are several legends about the way Ggantija was built. One of them tells about a giantess who would wander around the island in search for good stones, she would carry them around on her head and built herself a humble dwelling when everybody was asleep at night...
Back in 1772 the ruins were found and it took until 1827 before was cleaned under auspience of Colonel Bayer from the debris that had accumulated in and around the megaliths. Most of the pottery and other were lost, only not a small number of objects were preserved. Note that this was not an excavation, merely a cleaning operation. It is very likely that a lot of valuable artefacts were lost during this exercition.
Ggantija has two temples in the complex of which the bigger one (in the south) is the oldest. Its facade stands unrestored to a height of 6 meters. Unfortunately due to traffic and the weather this part of the facade was leaning forwards and there was a risk of collapse.
Therefore the road behind the temple was closed for traffic and a scaffolding has been put up, to temporally hold the wall from falling, until some form of restoration can be done. "The earliest temples, such as Ggantija, were built by piling huge rocks on top of each other. They did not have any carving or decoration.", according to some professor who's name I will not reveal, for he was wrong! Not about piling up the rocks, but about the decoration. The picture at the left clearly shows stone carvings and this picture was taken at Ggantija.
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