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| http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Temple_de_Ggantija.jpg |
The Ggantija Temple site dates back to 3,600-3,200. The people who built this temple and others, as the one at Tarxien, which I visited in October of 2013, disappeared suddenly after a few 1,000 years, and before the Phoenicians and Romans came to Malta.
Over fifty temple sites dot the islands of Gozo and Malta, which seems to be an extraordinary number of sacred places for such small spaces. Only animals were sacrificed, including pigs, cows, goats and birds, which look in the drawings, like quail.
A cult of fertility also seems obvious because of all the "fat ladies" found, statues of small to huge sizes of well-endowed females, as well as some phallic symbols.
To stand in a place where human beings stood over 5,000 years ago creates a feeling of continuity. But, who these people were and where they came from is a mystery. The one female skull computer-reconstructed, looks very much like a beautiful Maltese woman, and definitely Caucasian.
The mystery of the people of the Temples of Malta and Gozo may never be solved