Plans to turn cart ruts site into park

The San Ġwann cart ruts are planned to become the backdrop of an archaeological park that will include replicas of Malta's heritage monuments such as the Goddess of Fertility.

Visitors to this park, the first of its kind in Malta, will be able to enjoy the mysterious cart ruts that so far have been tucked away behind overgrown weeds.

The cart ruts will be protected by overlying bridges to ensure no one walks over them.

The local council filed a planning application in March to convert the derelict site in Mensija into the archaeological park and also applied for EU funding for 85 per cent of the project, estimated to cost about €150,000, the council's executive secretary, Adrian Mifsud, said.

Apart from that, about three years ago the council applied to convert Stefanotis Garden, where there are also a few cart ruts, into another park. Both projects are expected to be completed within four years.

Given the large size of the Stefanotis Garden, which looks like a small jungle where people often walk their dogs, the project is estimated to cost about €500,000.

The idea was that this would be a place for relaxation where people could go and enjoy the cart ruts, mayor Joseph Agius and vice mayor Etienne Bonello Dupuis said.

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority has informed the council that the Stefanotis Garden park had been recommended for approval.

However, the authority is demanding a €44,000 guarantee to ensure that the cart ruts will be protected.

Mr Bonello Dupuis said the local council was hoping to get this guarantee waivered or at least financed by the government, given the council's limited resources. Moreover, the council is planning to apply for funds for the Stefanotis park project.

In a letter to The Times, a San Ġwann resident recently pointed out that, for the past years, the cart ruts were "in complete shambles and utter neglect with weeds growing to a man's height and dog poop all over".

Asked how come the local council had not done anything to safeguard the prehistoric sites in the past nine years, Mr Bonello Dupuis said there was not enough money and applying for EU funds was not an option in the past.

"The cart ruts have been there for thousands of years and, I can assure you, they will survive a few weeds," he said adding that the council was committed to the projects that would allow tourists and locals to enjoy them. When the council took over the responsibility for the cart ruts, about nine years ago, it put up a fence around them.

The origins of the cart ruts, estimated to date back to between 2,300 and 1,000 BC, are shrouded in mystery. While some believe they were created by the repeated wheeling of carts through a specific path, other more eccentric theories suggest they could be the remains of alien contact.

According the local council's website, the presence of these prehistoric cart ruts suggests that the region may have housed an agricultural community which made full use of the then fertile valleys of Wied Għomor, Wied il-Ballut and Wied Għollieqa.