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| The
site lies about half a kilometre down the slope
from Hagar Qim on the south coast of Malta. It was
first excavated in 1840 but it was not until 1913
that a more rigorous investigation was undertaken
by Thomas Ashby of the British School at Rome. The
site was a bit of a jumble when Ashby arrived and
a good deal of restoration took place as part of
the project. A good deal of conservation and restoration
has gone on since. Most recently this has been in
response to a couple of episodes of vandalism. The
stones were spray painted in 1996 and a large number
of them were toppled over in 2001. This has since
been put right and security has been increased. |
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| There
are three major buildings at Mnajdra, built
during the Ggantija and Tarxien Phases (from
the middle of the Fourth to the middle of
the Third Millenium BC). The two larger buildings,
the North and South Temples, are conjoined
and form one architectural unit. They were
built separately, however, because the terrace
on which the southern temple sits is partiallly
supported by its northern neighbour. Excavations
in the latter have produced a mixture of Ggantija
and Tarxien pottery, so there is a good possibility
that the building was standing in the earlier
period and later remodelled. In fact, according
to the ceramic evidence, occupation on the
site goes back at least as far the Zebbug
and Mgarr Periods in the (4100-3600 BC). Because
of its simple trefoil plan, the Small Temple
is believed to have been the earliest of the
three—also dating to the Ggantija Period.
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Mnajdra. Aerial |
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Mnajdra.
Forecourt & Temples: The entrance
to the South Temple is straight ahead
and the terrace of the North Temple is
on the right.
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| The
three buildings are arranged in a semi-circle and
share a common forecourt area formed by the natural
rock surface. Hard, durable Coralline limestone
blocks were used for the external walls of the temple
with the interiors of Globigerinas, which are much
easier to carve. It is interesting that at Hagar
Qim, which was built at about the same time, the
builders apparently could not be bothered going
the extra distance to get the more durable material.
The buildings themselves are probably the most impressive
as far as design, engineering and execution of plan
are concerned. |
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| The
Small Temple |
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Small
Temple. View of Apse 10 from the Entrance |
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| The
Small Temple did not survive particularly well and
the rubble walls had totally collapsed leaving only
the outline of the floor to indicate the overall
plan. This is rather typical, with two outer apses
(9) and an elaborate entrance consisting of upright
slabs (which did survive) with niches on either
side. The innermost space, Apse 10, is separated
from the rest of the building by a setting of two
taller uprights flanking a line of three slabs.
The middle of the three has pitted decoration and
there are traces of similar holes on the frontal
edge of the flankers. |
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| The
South Temple |
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| The
South Temple, the next to be built,
had a concave façade made out
of large blocks of Coralline. There
were stone benches on either side of
the trilithon entrance (now partially
restored). When the North Temple was
built, this building underwent substantial
renovations. |
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| Room
1 is a large oval space, which includes
the two outer apses. The southern apse
contains a simple trilithon niche with
flanking uprights, built into the interior
face of the temple façade. Opposite
it was a very elaborate porthole setting,
which leads to a small room (3) at the
rear of the building. The |
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South
Temple. Façade |
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| porthole
is framed by a trilithon arrangement, which is itself
flanked by a pair of upright slabs. All of this
stone-work is decorated with pitted dots. |
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South
Temple. Room 1, Porthole to Room 3 |
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| The
northern apse connects to an L-shaped room (5) that
had evidently been hollowed out of the wall of the
temple façade when the North Temple was built.
Entry is through a porthole framed within a trilithon.
There is a small shrine immediately on the right
as you enter the room. A porthole framed by a trilithon
leads to a very cramped space containing a pillar
niche. At the other end of the room is a two-storeyed
altar made up of two horizontal slabs supported
by pillars. Another important feature is a small
rectangular ‘oracle hole’ cut through
one of the blocks separating this space from Room
1. |
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South
Temple. Room 1, Porthole to Room 5 |
South
Temple. Room 5, south end |
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| A
trilithon doorway, flanked by low stone blocks and
a pair of uprights, leads through to the rear part
of the building. A small lobby (2) with a small
shrine (3) to the left and an apse (4) to the right.
There is a trilithon niche at the rear of the temple
that is similar to the one found in the southern
apse of Room 1. Room 3 was most likely designed
as an apse when the temple was originally built
but was converted into a small rectangular room.
Inside |
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South
Temple. Room 3 from Room 2 looking
south
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South
Temple. Room 1, 'oracle hole' from Room
6
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| there
are two niches—a two-storeyed pedestalled
version opposite the porthole from Room 1 and another
at the south end of the room, supported by three
pillars. The space between Rooms 2 and 3 is taken
up by yet another pedestalled altar—so some
fairly serious cult activity must have taken place.
Room 4 appears to have been a rather typical apse
and had no distinguishing features. Room 6 is another
oddity because it is only accessible from outside
the building and has a rather nicely carved ‘oracle
hole’ connecting it with the northern apse
of Room 1. |
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South
Temple. View of the entrance & main
axis |
Astronomy
Mnajdra,
especially the South Temple, has been the
focus of astronomical speculation and it
is believed that it was designed to mark
certain important celestial events. It has
been noted that the main axis of the temple
faces almost due east, towards the sunrise
on the mornings of the spring and autumn
equinoxes. On those particular occasions,
the sun’s rays shine the length of
the passage. The sun also penetrates the
temple at the solstices. At midsummer, a
ray of light shines on the upright flanking
the decorated porthole leading to Room 3
while at midwinter, it strikes the upright
that forms the doorway to Room 2. While
these alignments are a little vague and
may be entirely due to coincidence, such
precision engineering is quite possible
in a Neolithic context as the stone circles
and tombs of Atlantic Europe attest. In
those cases, the builders appear to have
used settings of posts to lay out the various
lines of sight. A number of post holes have
been discovered within sight of Mnajdra
and may well have served the same purpose.
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| The
North Temple |
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| In
order to fit the North Temple between its two predecessors,
the slope of the hill was terraced to accommodate
the southern part of it. The result is that the
North Temple is some 3 metres higher than its southern
neighbour. It consists of a fairly typical four-apse
temple. However, one decidedly unusual feature is
the entrance. The main |
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North
Temple. View of the Terrace, much of it restored |
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entrance,
the one that is on the main axis of the building,
was a porthole, now partly broken but originally
nearly two metres high. This was apparently superseded
by a more conventional doorway located immediately
to its left. This particular configuration is
unique to the site and (so far) defies explanation. |
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North
Temple. The Two Entrances |
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The
outer room (7) is a fairly simple two-apse
space with no features of particular importance
apart from the exceptionally high quality
of the masonry. It was these blocks that
were thrown over when the site was vandalized
in 2001. At the rear of the room is a trilithon
doorway very similar to that which separates
Rooms 1 & 2 in the South Temple—an
L-shaped arrangement of upright slabs on
either side of the door set around a low
stone block. The most notable feature is
a graffito depicting a temple façade,
carved on the south upright of the internal
doorway leading to the rear of the building.
Room 8 has a rather conventional layout—a
pair of apses with a large niche built into
the rear wall on the main axis of the building.
On the south side of the room is a porthole
leading to a small annex with a pillar altar. |
North
Temple. Masonry in Room 8 |
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North
Temple. Temple Graffito |
North
Temple. Porthole in Room 8 |
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