Stop 04 of 12
Ħaġar Qim: the Seaward Side
How the temple grew, and what it faces
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 Seaward Side
The seaward side of Ħaġar Qim shows how the temple grew: a first building of around 3600 BC with chambers added against it over centuries and an outer wall thrown round the lot. From here the terraces fall to Mnajdra and the cliff, with Filfla five kilometres offshore in the view from almost every part of both temples.
An accumulation
Rather than a single plan, the temple is a first building with rooms added to it, then more rooms against those, each with its own doorway, over several hundred years, and an outer wall around everything afterwards. Outside the main building on the north side are smaller structures that may be older than anything within it.
Filfla and the alignment
The ground falls in terraces to Mnajdra, five hundred metres down the slope, and the land ends at the cliff beyond. Filfla lies five kilometres out and is visible from nearly every part of both temples. Whether that governed the choice of site cannot be proved; it has been remarked on by everyone who has stood here since 1839.
The oracle hole and the tallest stone
Low in the outer wall a hole passes from a small external niche into one of the chambers. Read as an oracle hole, it would carry a voice from the hidden side as if from the stone; it may as easily have passed offerings. In the forecourt wall stands a single stone over five metres tall, the tallest at the site, with no structural purpose anyone has found.
What to look at
- The tallest standing stone, over five metres, in the forecourt wall
- The external niche and its hole through to the chamber behind
- The second shelter below, and Filfla beyond it
Practical
- Shortcut
- The short route skips this stop; the path to Mnajdra leaves from either side of the temple.
- Terrain
- The path down to Mnajdra begins here: surfaced, downhill, about ten minutes.
Walk to stop 05 · The Path Between the Temples
Take the surfaced path downhill towards the second shelter. Stop about halfway, where the path bends and the view opens on both sides.
About 5 min · 277 m