Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra: a visitor’s guide to the temples

What they are, and why they matter

Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra are two prehistoric temple complexes on Malta’s south coast, five hundred metres apart on the same slope above the sea. They belong to a building tradition found only on these islands, which lasted from about 3600 to 2500 BC: rounded chambers walled with enormous upright stones, raised by farming communities without metal tools. The oldest parts of both are older than the pyramids of Egypt, and they are among the oldest free-standing stone buildings anywhere.

With Ġgantija on Gozo and the temples of Tarxien, Ta’ Ħaġrat and Skorba, they make up the Megalithic Temples of Malta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. What sets these two apart is where they stand: a bare limestone ridge falling to a sea cliff, with the islet of Filfla offshore. Nobody knows what they were for. Temple is the word that has stuck, not a finding, and it is worth holding lightly.

Getting there

The temples are on the ridge road outside the village of Qrendi, about fifteen minutes by road from the airport. There is a car park at the visitor centre, and a car is the simplest way to fit the temples, the cliffs and the Blue Grotto into one unhurried day.

Buses run from Valletta to a stop beside the visitor centre, and the same routes carry on down to Wied iż-Żurrieq, the inlet below the Blue Grotto, so on public transport you can arrive at one and leave from the other. Services on this side of the island are less frequent than on the main corridors: check the current route, and the time of the last bus back, before you set out.

How a visit works

Everything starts at the visitor centre on the ridge, where you buy the ticket. One ticket covers both temples and the path between them. The centre has a short film, a model of the landscape and replicas of the carved stones, as well as a café and toilets, which are the only ones on the site. Give it a little time before going down: the temples make more sense once you have seen the plan from above.

Ħaġar Qim is a short, level walk from the centre. From there a surfaced path runs about five hundred metres downhill to Mnajdra, ten minutes or so on foot, and the same path is the climb back. The two are not the same experience twice. Ħaġar Qim, on top of the ridge, is the larger and the more complicated; Mnajdra, lower down towards the cliff, is the better preserved.

Both temples are under large white shelters, and they are not there for your comfort, although they give the only shade on the site. Ħaġar Qim is built of globigerina limestone, the soft golden stone of most Maltese building, and by the end of the last century sun, salt and rain were taking its surface off in flakes. The shelters keep the weather off the stone. They were designed to be removable, and could come down if a better way of protecting it is found.

What to look for

At Ħaġar Qim, start with the façade: a long curved wall of upright slabs around a doorway of three stones, two uprights and a lintel. The largest slab in the outer wall is over six metres long. Inside, rounded chambers open off a central corridor, with more rooms added at more angles than at any other Maltese temple, and low in one outer wall is a small elliptical opening through which the sunrise enters at the summer solstice. On the seaward side, a single stone over five metres tall stands in the forecourt wall.

Mnajdra is three temples of different ages side by side on the slope: a small three-chambered one at the top, the oldest, and two larger ones below it. The lowest, the south temple, is the best preserved on the islands. It is built of a harder coralline limestone, its walls stand close to their full height, its stones are decorated with bands of small drilled pits, and its doorways are cut with a sharpness the soft stone of Ħaġar Qim could never have held.

At Ħaġar Qim the decorated stones you see in place are copies. The originals, including the carved pillar altar and the stone figures of hugely fat people found in its chambers, are in the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta, in the Auberge de Provence on Republic Street. Seeing the museum before or soon after the temples is worth the effort: the figures are small, and once you have seen them the empty rooms are easier to fill.

The sun at Mnajdra

The south temple at Mnajdra faces almost due east, and it was built to. At sunrise on the spring and autumn equinoxes, in March and September, the sun comes up in line with the main doorway and its light runs straight down the central passage to the back of the temple. At the summer and winter solstices the first light falls instead on the edges of the great slabs either side of the inner doorway, one in June and the other in December. The alignment has been measured and is not an accident; what the builders did with it is not known.

It is a dawn effect, and the site’s ordinary hours do not include dawn, so on a normal visit you see the doorway and the line through it rather than the light. Heritage Malta has in recent years opened Mnajdra at sunrise on these mornings for a limited number of visitors, booked in advance. If you are on the island at the right time of year, check whether it is doing so and how to book.

Making a day of the south coast

The temples are the start of a good half-day rather than all of it. Below Mnajdra a rough path follows the cliff past a memorial to Sir Walter Congreve, a governor of Malta buried at sea in the channel in front of it, to the Ħamrija Tower, a small seventeenth-century watchtower on the headland. It is a short walk, and the view back over both temples and out to Filfla is the best on this stretch of coast. The edge is unfenced and undercut in places, so stay on the path.

The Blue Grotto is about two kilometres east along the coast road: a sea arch and a run of caves, seen from a viewpoint on a bend in the road or from the small boats that leave from Wied iż-Żurrieq, the fishing inlet below. The boats go only when the sea is calm enough, and charge separately. The colour that gives the place its name is a morning effect, gone by early afternoon.

In summer that suggests an order: the temples as early as they open, while the ridge is still bearable, then the cliff and the tower, then down to Wied iż-Żurrieq for the boats and lunch at the inlet. It works on foot, by car or by bus, since buses stop both at the visitor centre and at the top of the village.

Heat, shade and how long to allow

The site is a bare ridge over the sea. Apart from the shelters and the visitor centre there is no shade at all, and in July and August the middle of the day is genuinely punishing: go early or in the late afternoon, and check the closing time before a late start. In winter the same exposure means wind.

Allow about two hours for the visitor centre and both temples at an unhurried pace, and half a day if you add the cliff path, the tower and the Blue Grotto. The following makes the visit easier:

• Water, a hat and sun cream from April to October. The café at the visitor centre is the only place to buy anything until Wied iż-Żurrieq.
• Shoes with grip. The temple floors are the original uneven stone, and the cliff path is a rough track.
• Some thought for the climb back. The path from Mnajdra to the centre is the slope you walked down, and it feels longer going up in the heat.
• If you use a wheelchair, the visitor centre and the path to Ħaġar Qim are step-free and the temple interiors can be seen from their entrances; the path down to Mnajdra is steep enough to need help on the way back up.

Walking it with a guide in your ear

Our Ħaġar Qim & Mnajdra audio walk covers all of this stop by stop: the visitor centre, both temples, the path between them, the cliff and the Ħamrija Tower, and on the full route the Blue Grotto and Wied iż-Żurrieq. The written guide to every stop is free to read on this site, and three stops are free to hear, no more than two on any one walk.