Stop 03 of 12
Ħaġar Qim: the Chambers
Fat figures, a carved plant, and a hole for the sun
Keep going
Stop one of Ħaġar Qim & Mnajdra plays straight away. The other 11 are one payment:
- Every stop from here to Wied iż-Żurrieq, narrated
- The map following you from stop to stop, hands free
- The whole tour saved to your phone — no signal, no roaming
Not sure yet? Start with The Visitor Centre & the Ridge.
The written guide below is open either way.
Guide to Ħaġar Qim: the Chambers
Inside, Ħaġar Qim follows the plan of every Maltese temple — rounded chambers opening in pairs off a central corridor — with more rooms added at more angles than any other. Its carved pillar altar and the famous statues of fat figures are in Valletta, represented here by copies; the elliptical opening that admits the summer solstice sunrise is still in the wall.
The plan
A central corridor with rounded chambers opening off it in pairs, like the lobes of a clover leaf, is the idea behind every temple on the islands. Ħaġar Qim has more of these chambers, added at more angles over several centuries, than any other. It reads less as a building than as an accumulation.
What was found here
The pillar altar carved with a plant growing from a pot, and the group of small stone figures with vast thighs, tiny hands and feet and socketed necks for interchangeable heads, both came from these rooms and are now in the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta. Fertility figures, goddesses, ancestors: every reading has been offered. The same figures occur at every temple, so whatever they meant was agreed across the islands.
The solstice opening
Low in the outer wall of one of the chambers is a small elliptical hole cut through the stone. At dawn on the summer solstice the first light passes through it onto a slab across the room. It is not erosion; someone cut it on the longest day, four thousand years before Christ.
What to look at
- The replica pillar altar with its carved plant, just inside on the left
- The elliptical solstice opening, low in an outer wall on the right
- Socket holes and bar holes at the doorways, for screens and doors now gone
Practical
- Originals
- The carved stones and the figures are in the National Museum of Archaeology, Valletta.
- Terrain
- Uneven stone floors and low thresholds; watch your footing.
Walk to stop 04 · Ħaġar Qim: the Seaward Side
Continue through the temple along the central corridor and out on the seaward side. Turn round to face the building.
About 1 min · 37 m