Heritage Malta is to open Għar Dalam during the night on Saturday May 21 in a repeat of a success enjoyed last year.

The event will feature presentations by John J. Borg, Senior Curator Natural History and Paul Portelli Site Executive of Għar Dalam as well as a moonlight tour of the site and cave followed by light refreshments.

Għar Dalam’s relevance as a prehistoric site was discovered in the latter half of the 19th Century with a series of excavations unearthing animal bones as well as human remains and artifacts. The cave is a highly important site for its Palaeontology, archaeology and ecology.

The history of the cave and that of the Islands can be decoded from Għar Dalam’s stratigraphy. The lowest layers, more than 500,000 years old, contained the fossil bones of dwarf elephants, hippopotami, micro-mammals and birds among other species. This layer is topped by a pebble layer, and on top of it there is the so-called ‘deer’ layer, dated to around 18,000 years ago. The top layer, or ‘cultural layer’, dates less than 10,000 years and holds evidence of the first humans on the Island. It was here that the earliest evidence of human settlement on Malta, some 7,400 years ago, was discovered.

The site consists of a cave, a Victorian style exhibition and a didactic display as well as a garden planted with indigenous plants and trees.

Tickets at €12 for adults €10 for elderly people, students and Heritage Malta members and children under 12 years of age are available from all Heritage Malta sites and museums and online from http://shop.heritagemalta.org. For more information one may call on 21657419 or follow Heritage Malta’s facebook page.