Ġgantija
Entrance of the main temple of Ġgantija
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 Location within Malta
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| Location | Xagħra, Gozo, Malta |
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| Coordinates | 36°02′50″N 14°16′09″E / 36.04722°N 14.26917°ECoordinates: 36°02′50″N 14°16′09″E / 36.04722°N 14.26917°E |
| Type | Temple |
| Part of | Megalithic Temples of Malta |
| History | |
| Material | Limestone |
| Founded | c.3600 BC |
| Periods | Ġgantija phase |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1827 and 1933–1959 |
| Condition | Well-preserved ruins |
| Ownership | Government of Malta |
| Management | Heritage Malta |
| Public access | Yes |
| Website | Heritage Malta |
| Official name | Megalithic Temples of Malta: Ġgantija, Ħaġar Qim, Mnajdra, Ta' Ħaġrat, Skorba, Tarxien |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | iv |
| Designated | 1980 (4th session) |
| Reference no. | 132 |
| Region | Southern Europe |
| Extended | 1992 |
Ġgantija (Maltese pronunciation: [dʒɡanˈtiːja], "Giants' Tower") is a megalithic temple complex from the Neolithic on the Mediterranean island of Gozo. The Ġgantija temples are the earliest of the Megalithic Temples of Malta. The Ġgantija temples are older than the pyramids of Egypt. Their makers erected the two Ġgantija temples during the Neolithic (c. 3600–2500 BCE), which makes these temples more than 5500 years old and the world's second oldest manmade religious structures after Göbekli Tepe. Together with other similar structures, these have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Megalithic Temples of Malta.
The temples are elements of a ceremonial site in a fertility rite. Researchers have the numerous figurines and statues found on site associated with that cult. According to local Gozitan folklore, a giantess who ate nothing but broad beans and honey bore a child from a man of the common people. With the child hanging from her shoulder, built these temples and used them as places of worship.
The Ġgantija temples stand at the end of the Xagħra plateau, facing towards the south-east.
This megalithic monument encompasses in fact two temples and an incomplete third, of which only the facade was partially built before being abandoned. Like Mnajdra South it faces the equinox sunrise, built side by side and enclosed within a boundary wall. The southerly one is the larger and older one, dating back to approximately 3600 BC. It is also better preserved. The plan of the temple incorporates five large apses, with traces of the plaster that once covered the irregular wall still clinging between the blocks.
The temples are built in the typical clover-leaf shape, with inner facing blocks marking the shape which was then filled in with rubble. This led to the construction of a series of semi-circular apses connected with a central passage. Archaeologists assume that the apses were originally covered by roofing.
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Wikipedia