Mnajdra's alignment
The equinox sun strikes the altar through the door.
Hamelin de Guettelet — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0
If you can: the Hypogeum is an underground temple cut into rock on three levels, but it admits only eighty visitors a day and books weeks or months ahead.
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The oldest free-standing stone buildings on earth, on a cliff over the Mediterranean: the Ħaġar Qim temple (3600-3200 BC) and its neighbour Mnajdra five hundred metres away, both UNESCO sites, raised from huge limestone blocks — the largest weighing twenty tonnes — set without metal, wheel or draught animal. Mnajdra is an astronomical marvel: its entrance is calculated so that the equinox sun enters the doorway and strikes the inner altar exactly, while the solstice sun hits the edges of the two flanking stones — a stone calendar working for five thousand years. Ħaġar Qim has its own "sun window" through which the summer solstice light falls. Protective tents now cover both against erosion, and the visitor centre between them shows a 4D film and explanation. The path between the two is a paved walk with views of Filfla island and the sea.
The equinox sun strikes the altar through the door.
Raised without metal or wheel.
The rock islet in the sea below the cliff.
Triq Ħaġar Qim, Qrendi