Ggantija – the mystic place on Gozo
I am Tanja, the Director of Sales at the Kempinski Hotel San Lawrenz, and I have been living in Gozo for just over 8 months now. Gozo for me is not just the place where I am working; meanwhile it became my home, and it’s a nice home, I must say. Especially now, in autumn, the island became green again and looks a bit like something out of a Rosamunde Pilcher movie.
Gozo, apart from being a paradise for diving, hiking, climbing etc, is also rich in culture and heritage. Who would ever think that here on Gozo we have the oldest man-made structure on earth? And if you see it, it does have something mystic, something that makes the time stand still. It was one of the first places I visited and is still one of my favorites. Just thinking that these temples are even older than the pyramids, creates a devotional feeling in yourself.
The Ggantija temples stand at the end of the Xaghra plateau, facing towards the south-east. This megalithic monument is in fact two temples, built side by side and enclosed within a boundary wall. The southerly one is the larger and elder, dating back to approximately 3600 BC. It is also better preserved. The plan of the temple incorporates five large apses with traces of the plaster that once covered the irregular wall still clinging between the blocks.
The temple, like other megalithic sites in Malta, faces southeast. The southern temple rises to a height of six meters. At the entrance sits a large stone block with a recess, which led to the hypothesis that this was a ritual ablution station for purification before entering the complex. The five apses contain various altars; evidence of animal bones in the site suggests the site was used for animal sacrifice.
The sheer size of the Ggantija temples is astonishing. Try thinking back several thousand years and then start wondering how it was humanly possible to move those boulders around, some of which weigh in at 50 tonnes!
Some of the information in this post originates with Wikipedia, where you can read more about Gozo’s neolithic temples.
And here is a link to a little short story revolving around Ggantija that Sabine wrote a couple of years ago – just one example how Gozo inspires you!
