The Maltese temples are the oldest freestanding structures in the world. They were built before the Egyptian pyramids. They were constructed out of durable coralline and softer globigerina limestone. The Mnajdra Temples reveal the western world's earliest construction methods. Although they have withstood the elements for several millennia many of the temples are collapsing due to intense weathering.
The Hypogeum is by far Malta's most impressive and finest temple. This world-class archaeological site was discovered by chance in 1902 as a stonemason prepared to lay the foundations of a house. What he uncovered was a rather macabre collection of the bones of over 7000 people. The earliest bones date back as far as 3600 BC, when its thought bodies of the dead were thrown into natural crevices. When these began to fill, new chambers were cut into the rock in a style that mirrored above ground temple architecture, and century after century, more bones were added.
Hagar Qim, the Megalithic temples
The Maltese refer to these figures as the “fat lady”. One theory is that they represent the Goddess of Fertility and that the temples were erected to in to worship the Goddess. The example above was found in Tarxien temple in the village Tarxien. It is one of the world’s oldest monumental statues
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