“Ġgantija Temples ~ it-Tempji tal-Ġgantija” ~ Walk around the neolithic temples, among the world's oldest monuments in Malta 🇲🇹

Hi all 👋🏻

With this post I’m joining in at the Wednesday Walk challenge and Make me Smile challenge. That are hosted by @tattoodjay and @elizacheng every week on Wednesday.
‼️Have a look: Here in the Wednesday Walk Community if you want to join in!

I will guide you through my photographs and the walk around the ”Ġgantija Temples ~ it-Tempji tal-Ġgantija” ~ these are neolithic temples and among the world's oldest monuments in Gozo, Malta.
I will follow the time stamps of my photographs.
So you can walk along with me and look at all the details and surroundings I show you 😎 and tell you a bit about the temple… as if you would be right there with me.

Photos are taken with my iPhone on 16 August 2020.
At that time we were living in Malta for a year and about to move back to Spain later in that month.
I also show you a beautiful windmill a few streets before the entrance to the visitors center of the temples.

The Island(s) of Malta:

We are visiting today Gozo, the top left Island.

Location of this walk around the temples and windmill on Google Maps, see the yellow stars ⭐️ :

Information about GOZO can be found In the following Website!

It states: ”Gozo in Maltese: Għawdex and in antiquity known as Gaulos is an island in the Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is part of the Republic of Malta. After the island of Malta itself, it is the second-largest island in the archipelago.

As of 2021, the island has a population of around 31,232 and its inhabitants are known as Gozitans (Maltese: Għawdxin). It is rich in historic locations such as the Ġgantija temples, which, along with the other Megalithic Temples of Malta, are amongst the world's oldest free-standing structures.

The island is rural in character and less developed than the island of Malta. Gozo is known for its scenic hills, which are featured on its coat of arms. The Azure Window, a natural limestone arch, was a remarkable geological feature until its collapse on March 8, 2017.
The island has other notable natural features, including the Inland Sea and Wied il-Mielaħ Window. There are few sandy beaches on the island, all small, as well as seaside resorts that are popular with both locals and tourists, the most popular being Marsalforn and Xlendi. Gozo is considered one of the top diving destinations in the Mediterranean and a centre for water sports.”

On our way towards the temples we found this beautiful windmill. We stopped to take some photographs.

Ta’ Kola Windmill ~ in Maltese: Il-Mitħna ta' Kola.
More information you Find in this website!

It states: ”The windmill is located in the village of Xagħra, on the island of Gozo in the Maltese archipelago. It was built in 1725 by the Fondazione Vilhena of Grand Master Manoel de Vilhena, and was rebuilt in the 1780s. It became a museum in 1992.

Like many other Maltese windmills, it has a round central tower surrounded by a number of rooms. The sails and milling machinery have been restored, as have the miller's living-quarters. The museum also contains a large collection of traditional tools, mostly for wood- and iron-working.”

We drive further a few streets and parked our car at the parking lot from the visitors center to enter the grounds of the temples.
In the visitors center we see the following very old statues and a visual of the site how it would have looked liked.

The description of the statues above see next photo.

Next we see these statues of clay figurines.

The clay snail figurine with the human head.

Let’s walk towards the temples now.

We follow a path and see around us.

It was a very hot day… I remember.

The back side of the temples.

A little bit of information about these temples you find In this website!

It states: ”Ġgantija is a megalithic temple complex from the Neolithic on the Mediterranean island of Gozo in Malta. The Ġgantija temples are the earliest of the Megalithic Temples of Malta and are older than the pyramids of Egypt. Their makers erected the two Ġgantija temples during the Neolithic (c. 3600–2500 BC), which makes these temples more than 5500 years old and the world's second oldest existing manmade religious structures after Göbekli Tepe in present-day Turkey.”

Let’s walk further…

The front side of the temples. There is some repair work going on, as you can see by the scaffolding.
We follow the walking path.

Next to us we see these views…

We are entering the temples.

To imagine this structure is older than the pyramids. 😳

Very interesting.

Let’s walk further…

The little corners and details…

This is my favourite part of the temples. As you can see it is old just by looking at it.

We walk further to the last area around it.

At the end of the grounds is a wall, we walked towards it and saw these views from Gozo.

A large church in the distance.

And with this last photograph I want to finish my post today and our walk together 😊
Malta is beautiful and worth discovering on a visit and don’t forget about the island of Gozo. The ferry ⛴ ride is not that long…
People say it (GOZO) is how Malta used to be in days gone by…

Until next time 😎
Hope you enjoyed my photos of this walk and going along with me. Thank you for looking and reading 😊 🙏🏻 Really much appreciated!

Any questions or comments, let me know. Always happy to help.

Have a great Wednesday all 😎
Grtz Jackie

The divider is Created by SilverFish / @ mondoshawan

Unless stated otherwise: All art and photos used in my posts are taken, created and owned by me. If you wish to use any of my photographs, please contact me first. As I have used some commercially myself. We don’t want that you or somebody else gets into trouble 😉 So please don’t use them without my consent.