We checked out of the hotel and were stuck in traffic for a while headed to the city of Valetta. Rose brought us to look a few minutes over the harbor at Valletta before walking us to the Archeology Museum. Here we finally got to see the original artifacts that had been found in the temples we had visited.
There we saw The Sleeping Lady, the carved stones, the pottery and some jewelry. Even modular heads that were meant to be changed from statues, for what reason, no one knows.
And there were models and plans for each of the temples, including the Hypogeum at Hal Saflieni. We had been hearing about this collection for the last few days and it didn’t disappoint. In fact we bought five books as we left.
As we left the Archeology Museum, I couldn’t help but notice that we walked by the church of St Barbara. I’ve never seen one before and I had to take a photo.
Our last stop in Malta was the Ghar Dalam cave.
This cave is the location of layers of prehistoric artifacts including bones from African species from when Malta was connected to Italy and Africa. Many of these fossils are displayed in a 19th century style museum onsite.
After Ghar Dalam, we bid goodbye to our wonderful guide Rose at the airport. A few hours later, we were back in our Roma apartment with minds full of wonder. With midterms this week, I couldn’t even begin to summarize such an amazing weekend, but I hope I have done so now.
This three day adventure was too much to squeeze into one post, so this is the fourth of four. Here are links to the others.
Part I
Part II
Part III