Mepa has approved a Heritage Malta project to erect a tent-like shelter over Tarxien megalithic temples, similar to the structures set up over Hagar Qim and Mnajdra.

Approval was given unanimously by the Mepa board this afternoon, coincidentally on the same day that the Prime Minister will open a new visitors' centre marking the conclusion of the Hagar Qim-Mnajdra project.

The shelter at Tarxien Temples will form part of a €2 million conservation project and will include a walkway, environmental monitoring equipment and several studies.

The protective structure, which will have a total footprint measuring approximately 2700m², will be a metal lattice structure, very different from the one at Hagar Qim and Mnajdra.

The intervention which is reversible, will shelter and protect the temples from direct rainfall, solar radiation and ground humidity. It will be designed to ensure that airflow within the site remains adequate.

The temples which were discovered in 1914. They consist of four separate, but attached, temple structures. Many of the decorated slabs discovered on site were relocated indoors for protection at the Museum of Archaeology in Valletta.

Heritage Malta officials explained that the pillars had to be placed in a way which did not disturb any archaeological remains. The structure will be such as not to retain any humidity on the site.

The structure is expected to last for 25 years.

The Mepa board also approved the building of a small hotel on part of the site of the former Les Laspins Hotel in Pieta'.