Walking to Hagar Qim

Yesterday I joined another Ramblers Malta walk from Siggiewi (Sigg rhymes with 'sidge' and iewi rhymes with kiwi) to the temples at Hagar Qim and Mnadjra.  It was another beautiful afternoon for walking but the morning was not promising with a thunderstorm accompanying my breakfast.

  

The meeting time in Siggiewi was 2.00pm and I gave myself plenty of time for the change of buses in Valletta.  As we were pulling out of Valletta through Floriana, I noticed piles of what looked like snow in the corners of gutters and thought idly that some people must have gone to great lengths with their cribs.  This morning in the local papers there are reports and pictures of people walking in knee high hailstones in Valletta!

I arrived early in Siggiewi and had coffee in the local 'Knights' bar near the church square where I was the only woman.  When my eyes had got accustomed to the gloom I noticed the toilet sign for men only but was reassured by the barman that it was 'opposite' too.   Then after a stroll around the town, I sat in the sun on the steps of the parish church of St Nicholas and ate my lunchtime sandwich as I read up on the local villages in this area.  Like Ghaxaq (previous post) Siggiewi has two band clubs around the square and several chapels.  

There was a big turn-up for the walk which was led by Dr Gunter again.  We set off through the rural landscape around Mqabba to Xrendi (don't pronounce the X).  Mqabba is famous for its Globigerina limestone quarries.  This is the softer of the two types of limestone found in Malta.  Coralline limestone is the harder variety that is more difficult to work with.  I realised from my reading that I have been getting the two labels mixed up in previous posts so read anything before this one with caution!  

The photo that heads this post is of a farmer working his field that has been established in an old quarry.  There are good examples of this recycling practice around this area and the quarry sides give protection from the wind and help to retain moisture.  The fields in general are well maintained and look very fertile but we learnt that the new way of growing grapes along wire is actually wasteful of water.  The old Maltese way was to allow the plant to straggle along the ground and this helped to keep the soil moist. 

As we passed one of the square farmhouses that dot the Maltese landscape, the familiar dog appeared on the roof, but this one was different from the usual hunting dogs.  It had the pointed ears and long legs of the Eqyptian temple dogs.  I have a small statuette of such a dog that was sold to me in Luxor by Moustache Ali (see my post several months back!).  Dr Gunter suggested the dog was an indicator of the North African influences on the Maltese landscape.  I am again struck by the way in which Malta seems to be bringing together all the threads of my life!

After passing through Xrendi, we walked on to Hagar Qim and Mnadjra temples.  I had visited here with my mother some 15 years ago and was stunned then by the dramatic positioning alone on the cliffs of Dingli with the tiny rugged island of Filfla in the sea below.  That time we were the only people there although there was an ancient attendant sitting in a makeshift hut who sold us a ticket to go in.  

The temples are made of the softer globigerina limestone that has been quarried nearby since they were constructed around 3000BC.  Their position exposes the huge slabs to weathering from wind and saltwater.  I was prepared, therefore, for the protective shield that was going up around both temples and had read about the decision to gain EU funding to erect the cover.  What I was not prepared for was the huge and very ugly reception building that is being erected adjacent to Hagar Qim that jumps out of the landscape as soon as you walk down the road and drags your eye away from anything else.  Many people in Malta have been disappointed by the decision to build this monstrosity rather than the smaller one story building that was originally proposed.  I am very glad that I have images in my head of the temples before they were vandalised in 2001 and now again legally vandalised in the name of conservation.

We completed our circular walk back to Siggiewi as the sun was setting and colouring the clouds that were once again gathering.   We walked down an old WW2 airstrip now used as a road and the clouds above us were etched in purples, deep blues, pinks and even turquoise.  Back in the square, the bus to Valletta was about to leave and we drove back through village streets bright with Christmas lights.