Troy & Simone's Belgian Adventure: Malta Pt. 2

My dad asked me if we saw any falcons during our trip to Malta. Though the Knights of St. John once paid two per year as "rent" for the Maltese islands, sadly the poor birds have since been hunted nearly to extinction. So, no falcon-sitings for us. What we did see, however, were cart ruts. And what are those? We'll get to that.

Malta actually consists of three islands--Malta, Gozo, and Comino. Malta is the biggest and best known of the trio, while tiny Comino is basically an uninhabited rock with a beach. Gozo, located just a few miles off Malta's northwest coast, is about 1/3 Malta's size, is more rural and pastoral-feeling, and, as it was spared the bombing that damaged much of Malta during WWII, is much prettier. Though our time in Malta was limited, we decided to spend a whole day (Valentine's Day, as it happens) on Gozo.

We took this shot while waiting for the car ferry to unload before we drove on. Going over, this was a quick, easy process. Coming home, however, not so much. Apparently the big Carnival party for that day was on Gozo, and the entire country had come across to partake in the festivities. So, that night it took the better part of three hours to get back to Valetta. Blerg.

Entering Mgarr Harbor

Mgarr, one of the Knights' fortified cities

Grapes Wine Bar

Finally, on Gozo, we found something of a café culture! Piazzas and umbrella-shaded cafés are, to us, inseparable from our notion of Italy. Being such close neighbors, Italy has heavily influenced Malta and thus we expected to see a similar "life in the streets" layout to the cities, but it was not that prevalent on Malta island. Gozo, however, felt more social, more communal, and somehow more Mediterranean. This little enoteca had heat lamps under the umbrellas, which made sitting outside feel great!

Basilica of St. George

Our little café, located on Pjazza San Gorg, was in the shadow of the beautiful Basilica of St. George. St. John's Cathedral in Valetta was the first church in Malta built with a double spire, but nearly every church built after it features this motif.

Il-Kastell

Victoria (fka Rabat, but renamed after Britain's Queen Victoria for her Diamond Jubilee) is the main town on Gozo, and the highest point of the city is dominated by Il-Kastell, the old citadel. The wind was blowing something fierce, which made walking around a bit of an effort. But it also created such a clear day that we captured some pretty spectacular pictures.

Troy with Victoria behind

Me with the Gozitan plain behind

Looking towards Xewkija and its massive Rotunda

The sky was so beautiful, and since we were visiting in winter, everything was so green.

Tucked into a hillside, sort of in a suburban area, lies the rather unprepossessing entrance to the Ggantija Temple Complex. I don't know if you can make out the inscription, but it says that this is a UNESCO World Heritage site, used from c. 3600 - 2500 B.C. Elsewhere on the site, it terms this the Oldest Building in the World! There are two joined temples at Ggantija, and they are considered among the oldest and largest in the Maltese Islands. As a point of reference, keep in mind that these temples are ~500 years older than the oldest pyramid in Egypt.

The guidebook said that visiting these temple sites can be frustrating because they often leave you with more questions than answers, and this was true for us. Who were these people? How did they create not just buildings, but such complex architecture? How did they move and lift the stones? How did they learn about astronomy? What was their cosmology?

Megalithic stones at the Ggantija Temples

Inside one temple; thought to be an altar(s)

These walls are 6+ meters (~20 feet) high!

After all that philosophy at Ggantija, we needed a dose of tranquil nature. So we headed off for Gozo's west coast to check out the sea cliffs at Dwejra and the "Azure Window", a natural aperture in the rocks.

Sea cliffs at Dwerja

The Azure Window

From Dwerja, we drove a south-easterly route towards Ta'Cenc in search of... the cart ruts. Cart ruts are maybe the biggest mystery among all the mysterious ancient stuff in Malta. These "ruts" are man-made parallel grooves in the ground, and they date back to seriously old prehistoric times, something on the order of 7000 years ago(!). Archaeologists speculate that the ancient Maltese used a travois-style sled to transport stuff and thus these ruts were created by the continuous movement of these carts or sleds being pulled over the (relatively) soft limestone. But, who knows? Because they are so old and the geology and sea depths of Malta keep evolving, now some of these ancient tracks actually go off cliffs, appear underwater, and reappear across a bay or chasm. We just had to see this.

However, after wandering around fruitlessly, guided by some pretty vague directions ('Wander off to the left of the track, near the edge of the limestone crag...keep your eyes peeled'), we were ready to give up. It was cold, we were getting blown around (which you can see in the super glamorous photo above), and we had a ferry to catch. But, just as we were ready to throw in the towel, a hardy local out walking his dog on the cliffside path happened by. We stopped him and asked about the ruts, and he sort of waved over our heads, pointing off across the fields we had just skirted. Hardly clear directions, but we figured we'd try walking back that way if we could stand the wind and the rough ground for a few more minutes. Troy wandered ahead and after a few minutes called out the magic word: Ruts!