Stop 08 of 12
The Misqa Tanks
Where the ridge kept its rain
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 The Misqa Tanks
A short climb above Mnajdra, on the flat top of the ridge, a series of bell-shaped cisterns is cut into the bare limestone, with narrow mouths and wide chambers, fed by channels traceable in the rock. Their date is uncertain and possibly prehistoric; they have been used, cleaned and deepened into living memory. On a dry ridge over a dry island, they are the other half of the skill that built the temples.
What they are
Rain running off the rock was led along cut channels into narrow mouths that open into wide chambers below, and water was drawn back up through the mouths. The form is the classic Maltese bell cistern, and the channels can still be followed across the surface.
How old
Their position a few hundred metres above the temples, and the lack of any spring on the ridge, make a prehistoric origin tempting: a community that could build Mnajdra could cut a cistern and would have needed one. But rock-cut tanks were dug on Malta in every later century, and these have been maintained and used within living memory. Someone was storing rain here a very long time ago, and farmers still are.
What to look at
- The narrow mouths in the bare rock, some with worn rims from ropes
- Shallow channels cut across the surface to lead water in
- The fields around, still watered from the tanks
Practical
- Safety
- The openings are unfenced and deep. Keep children close and stay on the path.
- Route
- Full walk only; the shorter routes go straight from Mnajdra to the cliff path.
Walk to stop 09 · The Congreve Memorial & Filfla
Return down the path past Mnajdra and follow the cliff-top track towards the sea. The memorial is the stone on the cliff edge ahead. Stay on the track.
About 9 min · 575 m