MAIN TOUR ITINERARY
(B = Breakfast, L = Lunch, D = Dinner)

Day 1. Sunday, March 19. Arrive Malta. Group Meeting & Welcome Dinner (D)
Arrive in Malta (Airport Code MLA) today on your own. Please book your flight to arrive early enough in the day such that you’ll have a chance to rest before our evening activities. - After clearing Immigration and Customs, look for our local tour representative in the Arrivals Hall holding a sign with your name on it. He will assist you to transfer to the hotel in a private taxi booked by Sacred Sites Journeys.

Arrive at the hotel. Check in and rest a bit before our evening meeting and dinner.

6:00PM – Introductory Meeting at the hotel, including a short presentation by Dr. Schoch.
7:00PM – Welcome Dinner at the hotel.
Overnight Valetta. The Osborne Hotel. http://www.osbornehotel.com/
The Osborne Hotel, one of the best hotels in Valetta, is housed in one of the magnificent palaces built by the knights of the Order of St John. The hotel is situated in the heart of the capital city of Valletta. Just a stone’s' throw away from the island's major museums, art treasures, and the unique 16th century architecture of the city, the hotel is located close to shops, entertainment, cafes, and restaurants.

All 63 hotel rooms are pleasantly furnished with an en-suite bathroom, air-conditioning, central heating, and a flat-screen satellite television. Tea / coffee making facilities, replenished daily, are available in each room. Furthermore a hairdryer, toiletries, direct dial telephone, wake-up call service, and Wi-Fi access is also available throughout the hotel, free of charge.The Osborne Hotel offers a range of facilities and services to ensure that you have a pleasant stay. The hotel is fully air-conditioned and has a 24 hour reception with a knowledgeable and friendly front-desk staff. The hotel features a cozy bar and lounge. A rich buffet breakfast of local and international cuisine is available, as well as diverse lunch and dinner options.  Vegetarian and Celiac meals are available on request. The terrace boasts amazing views of Valletta and Marsamxetto Harbour. The Battenberg Suite is located on the 6th floor, where we’ll have our group meetings and presentations with Dr. Schoch.

Day 2. Monday, March 20. Spring Equinox Sunrise at Mnajdra & Hagar Qim; Mgarr: Skorba and Ta Hagrat Temples; Mdina (B/L/D)
We depart early for our dawn visit to Mnajdra and Hagar Qim for the Spring Equinox sunrise. (Coffee/tea and a small snack will be available in the hotel lobby and at the visitor center at Mnajdra/Hagar Qim.) As the ancient people who built this magnificent stone temple did, we'll watch the Sun come up over the mountains to the East and see the light it casts into the temple's entrance and inner sanctum. In many ancient cultures the spring equinox marks a time of renewal and rebirth, the beginning of a new year and cycle. From an Earth perspective, on the spring equinox the cosmos and Earth are “balanced” as the daylight and nightime hours are temporally equal. The creative energies of the Sun, growing ever stronger and uniting with the potential of the Earth, lead to a flowering of nature. In ancient times fertility rites carried out on the sprinx equinox helped assure the fecundity of humanity and of all of nature for the coming year. A key element on Malta in such equinox rituals was the passing of the rays of the Sun through the front entrance of the temple to the inner sanctum, marking the uniting of the Heavens and Earth. We will witness and experience together this moving event. We'll have time for individual reflection on what this ancient rite of a New Beginning means in our lives. (We’ll return to these sites for a full visit later in the week.)

         
Photos - L to R: The Sun's rays penetrating into the inner sanctum at Mnajdra; model of Mnajdra showing this phenomenon

Return to the hotel for breakfast

9:30AM – Be in the hotel lobby ready to depart

9:45AM – Depart the hotel. Today we begin our exploration and experiences of the sacred temples of Malta! After breakfast we depart by coach to the Village of Mgarr (im-jarr), a typical rural village situated in an isolated region, to visit the temples of Ta Hagrat and Skorba.

Our first stop is at the Skorba temples, megalithic remains on the northern edge of Zebbieg, which have provided detailed and informative insight into the earliest periods of Malta's Neolithic culture. The site was only excavated in the early 1960s, rather late in comparison to other megalithic sites, some of which had been studied since the early 19th century. The site's importance has led to its listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a listing it shares with half a dozen other megalithic temples in Malta.

The remains on the site are a series of megalithic uprights (one of them is 3.4 meters tall), the lowest course of the temples' foundations, paving slabs with libation holes in the entrance passage, and the torba or cement-like floor of a three-apse temple, a shape that is typical of the Ġgantija phase. Unfortunately, the greater part of the first two apses and the whole of the façade have been razed to ground level. But the north wall is in a better state of preservation. Originally, the entrance of the temple opened on a court, but in later additions during the Tarxien phase, the temple's doorway was closed off, with altars set in the corners formed by the closure. East of this temple, a second monument was added in the Tarxien phase, with four apses and a central niche. For a period of roughly twelve centuries before the temples were built, a village already stood on the site. Its oldest extant structure is the long straight wall to the west of the temples’ first entrance. Deposits at its base contained material from the early human occupation of the island, the Għar Dalam phase, dating back 7,000 years ago. (The dates given here and throughout this itinerary are those currently accepted by the “conventional” archaeologists. As Dr. Schoch will discuss, and you will have a chance to explore with him, he suspects that in some cases the original structures may actually be thousands of years older and were subsequently re-appropriated and reused during the various historical phases cited by mainstream historians.)

Next we visit the Ta Hagrat temples in Mgarr, of which the larger temple is attributed to the Ġgantija phase (3600–3200 BCE); the smaller is attributed to the Saflieni phase (3300–3000 BCE).

Major Temple: The Ġgantija phase temple is typically trefoil, with a concave façade opening onto a spacious semicircular forecourt. The façade contains a monumental doorway in the center and a bench at its base. Two steps lead up to the main entrance and a corridor flanked by upright megaliths of coralline limestone. Three are placed on each side and support large hard-stone slabs. The corridor beyond the entrance is paved with large stone blocks placed with great accuracy.

The corridor leads into a central torba court, radiating three semi-circular chambers. These were partially walled off at some time in the Saflieni phase; pottery shards were recovered from the internal packing of this wall. The apses are constructed with roughly-hewn stone walls and have a rock floor. Corbelling visible on the walls of the apses suggest that the temple was roofed.

Minor Temple: The Saflieni phase temple situated to the north is 6.5 meters long, and is entered through the eastern apse of the larger temple. Smaller stones have been used in its construction and it exhibits irregularities in design considered archaic or provincial.

We then enjoy our group lunch at one of the local tavernas in Mgarr Square, taking time to share with each other our experiences from this morning.

After lunch we’re off to visit the village of Mdina, the old capital of Malta. Mdina is a medieval walled town situated on a hill in the center of the island. Punic remains uncovered beyond the city’s walls suggest the importance of the general region to Malta’s Phoenician settlers. Natives and visitors commonly call Mdina the “Silent City”. The town is still confined within its walls, and has a population of just over three hundred, but it is contiguous with the village of Rabat, which takes its name from the Arabic word for suburb, and has a population of over 11,000. Mdina is fascinating to visit for its timeless atmosphere as well as its cultural and religious treasures.

The history of Mdina goes back more than 4000 years. According to tradition it was here in 60 CE that the Apostle St. Paul lived after being shipwrecked on the islands. He supposedly resided inside the grotto known as Fuori le Mura (outside the city walls) now known as St. Paul’s Grotto in Rabat, which we will visit. We will also tour the late 17th-century St. Paul's Cathedral in Mdina, which stands on the traditional site of the house of the governor Publius, who received St. Paul when he was shipwrecked on Malta.

Mdina has had different names and titles depending on its rulers and its role, but its medieval name describes it best – ‘Citta’ Notabile’: the noble city. It was home then, as now, to Malta’s noble families; some are descendants of the Norman, Sicilian, and Spanish overlords who made Mdina their home from the 12th century onwards. Impressive palaces line its narrow, shady streets. Mdina is one of Europe’s finest examples of an ancient walled city and is extraordinary in its mix of medieval and Baroque architecture. During our tour we will stop at the bastions of Mdina to admire the extensive views of Malta from one of the highest points on the island.

We return to the hotel later in the afternoon.

5:30PM – Group Meeting & Presentation by Dr. Schoch about the general background and context for Malta and how his other work on ancient civlizations fits in, as well as to discuss some theories about the “cart ruts” which we will visit tomorrow.

7:30PM – Group dinner at the hotel.
Overnight Valetta. The Osborne Hotel.

Day 3. Tuesday, March 21. Cart Ruts, National Museum of Archaeology, Free Time (B/L/D)
8:00AM - Breakfast at your leisure
9:00AM – Be in the lobby ready to depart
9:15AM – We're off to explore the mysterious ancient “cart ruts” that have been the subject of debate for hundreds of years as to their origin, form, and function - a most perplexing mystery! Here on the islands of Malta and Gozo they are the most famous and numerous. Deep ruts, tracks, and grooves left in the limestone in such numbers, variety, and confusion leave more questions than answers. On Malta there are cart ruts going off high cliff tops, while some are located on the sea floor. At both Clapham Junction and San Gwann Junction there are many that intersect each other in apparent total chaos. The Clapham Junction site was nicknamed after the complex railway tracks of a London station. How were they formed? If they're made by humans, who were they and why did they make them? Dr. Schoch (whose Ph.D. is in geology and geophysics) will explore with us this longtime mystery, explaining the broad variety of explanations for the ruts and grooves that have been proposed in the past (from the mundane of dismissing them as totally natural features to some highly speculative hypotheses involving advanced peoples in the very distant past) and discussing his own analysis of this perplexing enigma. And of course, we want to hear what you think of the “cart ruts”. Will you be able to solve the puzzle? As Dr. Schoch likes to point out, fresh eyes can bring new insights!

Afterwards we enjoy a lunch of traditional Maltese cuisine with the group at a local restaurant.

Then we’re off to the National Museum of Archaeology, a Maltese museum of prehistoric artifacts that is managed by Heritage Malta. The ground floor of the museum exhibits prehistoric artifacts from the Maltese islands, from the Għar Dalam phase (conventionally dated back to 5200 BCE), the earliest appearance of settlement on the island, up to the Tarxien phase (conventionally considered to end around 2500 BCE).

Early Neolithic Period Room (5200–3800 BCE)
The Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum: This room exhibits artifacts from the early Neolithic Period, including decorated pottery from the Għar Dalam, Grey Skorba, Red Skorba and Żebbuġ phases. Of particular importance are the Red Skorba figurines, the earliest local representations of the human figure and the predecessors of the statues of later temple periods. The exhibition features a reconstruction of the rock-cut tombs that were a characteristic of the early Neolithic period in Malta.

Temple Period Rooms (3800–2500 BCE)
These rooms show examples of architecture, human representation, and other items that date from the Mġarr, Ġgantija, Saflieni, and Tarxien phases of Maltese prehistory.

The museum exhibits numerous corpulent statues representing human bodies unearthed from temple excavations, along with phallic representations. Are these statues of the Mother Goddess, Fat Ladies, Deities, or Priests? The discovery of temple altars and corpulent human representations suggests that some type of cult existed on the islands of Malta and Gozo in prehistory. Given the corpulence of the statues it may be that the cult was tied to a fertility rite. Fertility at this time must have been very important since, apart from family growth, it also meant the reproduction of crops and animals. We’ll explore these theories during our time here in this sacred land.

We return to the hotel in the later afternoon.

7:00PM – Group dinner at the hotel or a nearby local restaurant. (To be determined).
Overnight Valetta. The Osborne Hotel.

Day 4. Wednesday, March 22. Free Time; Walking Tour of Valetta; Private Entrance at Tarxien Temples (B/L/D)
Sleep in a bit and have breakfast at your leisure. You have free time this morning.

11:45AM – Be in the hotel lobby ready to depart for our group lunch at a nearby local restaurant.

Afterwards we'll enjoy a walking tour of Valetta, including the Grand Masters Palace and other important historical locations. We'll also enjoy a short audio visual show about the history of Malta.

Afterwards we continue for our private entrance after-hours at the Tarxien (tar-she-en) Temples, which are conventionally attributed to the period 3600-2500 BCE; this is the most complex of all temple sites in Malta, consisting of four megalithic structures. The temples are renowned for the detail of their carvings, which include domestic animals depicted in relief, altars, and screens decorated with spiral designs and other patterns. Of particular note is a chamber set into the thickness of the wall between the South and Central temples, which is famous for its relief of two bulls and a sow. The site seems to have been used extensively for rituals, which probably involved animal sacrifice.

In the Bronze Age (2400-1500 BCE), Tarxien was reused as a cremation cemetery. The site lay hidden for centuries until its discovery in 1914, when farmers struck large stone blocks while ploughing a field. Sir Temistocles Zammit, Malta’s first director of museums, excavated the site in 1915-17.

The Tarxien temple complex consists of four temples connected by a square court. The temples each have separate entrances. Uniquely, the central temple consists of six apses. This is the only known example of such a layout and it represents a final phase in the long evolution of Maltese temple architecture. A narrow staircase connects the central temple to the east temple. 

Spherical stones found at the site have provided a valuable clue as to how the great stones of Malta's megalithic temples may have been moved into place; some researchers believe they were rolled on the stones while being towed with ropes. We’ll discuss this and other theories about the ancient megalithic building techniques.

           
Photos of Tarxien Temples