Heritage Malta is organizing a Heritage Trail that will be focusing on early man in Malta. Participants will be visiting several places including Għar Dalam in Birżebbuġia, Skorba and Ta' Ħaġrat temples at Mġarr and an archeological site at Xemxija, all important sites where evidence of the early human presence was found. The event forms part of Heritage Malta's series of thematic heritage trails that seek to provide participants with a greater awareness on a particular topic of cultural interest.

Għar Dalam Cave is a very important site as it was here that the earliest evidence of human settlement on Malta was found. The history of the cave and of the islands can be decoded from the cave's stratigraphy. The lowermost layers are more than 500,000 years old, whilst the topmost layer was dated to less than 10,000 years ago.

Skorba comprises two adjacent temple remains although the site was occupied long before the temples were built. The earliest structure is an almost straight length of wall, of which 11m were exposed that was dated to the Għar Dalam phase (5,000 - 4,300 BC).

The temple at Ta' Ħaġrat is one of the earliest temple buildings in Malta. The site, which was excavated between 1923 and 1926 contained amongst others a unique small limestone model of a building which is presently on exhibit in the prehistory section of the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta.

The Heritage Trail will be held on Sunday 13th April 2008. Participants will be meeting in front of the Hotel Phoenicia at 8.30 hrs and will return to Valletta at around 13.00 hrs. Tickets, costing €15 (Lm6.44) for the general public and €10 (Lm4.29) for Heritage Malta members, must be bought beforehand from the Heritage Malta Head Office in Merchants Street, Valletta. For booking and more information phone Heritage Malta on 2295 4312.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.