Podcasts · The Story of Malta: The Fortress Island of the Mediterranean — Fexingo History
The Gozo Stone: Malta's Prehistoric Temple Builders
· 6:48 · S4 E194
Episode The Gozo Stone: Malta's Prehistoric Temple Builders
Before the Knights, before the Arabs, before the Romans, there were the temple builders. In this episode, Lucas and Luna journey back over five thousand years to the Neolithic and Chalcolithic eras, when the islands of Malta and Gozo were home to some of the oldest free-standing stone structures in the world. They explore the Ġgantija temples on Gozo, believed to be older than Stonehenge, and the Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni, a subterranean necropolis carved out of living rock. Lucas explains how these ancient people quarried, transported, and raised massive limestone blocks without metal tools or the wheel, and considers the possible purposes of these sites—from fertility cults to ancestor worship. The episode considers the mysterious 'fat lady' figurines, the famous 'Sleeping Lady' found in the Hypogeum, and the eventual collapse of this island civilization. Along the way, Lucas and Luna reflect on what draws us to these silent stones and what they might tell us about the people who built them.
#Ġgantija #Hypogeum #MegalithicTemples #Neolithic #PrehistoricMalta #Gozo #TempleBuilders #SleepingLady #ĦalSaflieni #Tarxien #Chalcolithic #AncientHistory #Archaeology #Mediterranean #MaltaHistory #FexingoHistory #History #StoneTemples
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Transcript
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