Monday, June 18, 2018

Malta, 5: The Ggantija Temple Complex On Gozo

Some highlights from the temple complex at Ggantija, c. 3,500 BC...
Drone view...helpful model #456,289; five apses on the left, four on the right

Approaching, dorsal view

It's warm and sunny; not that bad, but we're taking refuge under a carob tree

Approaching

Heritage Malta has done a wonderful job in displaying these sites and in
permitting access to them

So the thing here, if you're expecting Stonehenge, is that the rock is limestone;
it is easily worked; but it is easily weathered


One of the apses



One of the entry ways, looking back: finely worked orthostats


A wall in some danger of collapse; buttressed until they figure out how to save
it

How the ancients moved and set the gigantic stones is a mystery; some
theorize they used spherical stones, much like ball-bearings

Such stones appear in abundance at the various sites

Another apse

Another mystery is the holes in the big rocks...gigantic
cup-marks?


And then there are these "rooms," post and lintel, finely worked; we'll see more
of such at the Hypogeum, in a few days



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