Jan 17 – Valetta, Malta. We've been to Malta several times but I don't think I'd ever tire of it. The island is rich in history, some of it very unusual. The strategic location of the island has led to many occupations, the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Moors, Byzantines and The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. The Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (aka Knights Hospitaller) was founded in 1099 to provide aid to sick pilgrims and Christians. It became a military order in 1113 and defended those same pilgrims in the Holy Land from a fortress in Acre.
When the Ottoman took over Jerusalem they moved to the island of Rhodes. Unfortunately the Ottoman followed them there and once again the knights were dispossessed. They moved to various sites in the Med until 1530 when Malta was given to them by the Spanish king. It was at this time that they became known as the Knights of Malta.
This gift would prove to be propitious for Spain and all of Europe. The Ottoman Empire had already spread to southern Spain as the Spanish had been unable to resist them. The Turks attempted to open a second front in Europe and needed Malta as a base for that operation. The Knights, under the leadership of Jean Parisot de la Valette (the Grand Master of the Order and for whom Valetta is named) drove back the Turkish armies of Suleiman the Magnificent during the Ottoman siege of 1565. This was a miraculous victory as only 600 knights defeated an army of 6,000-10,000 Turks (depending on which history you accept as accurate). This was the first success that European forces had against the Turks and was the beginning of the end for the Ottoman Empire. It was not long after that the revitalized Spaniards started the Reconquista and took southern Spain, Andalusia, back from the Ottoman as well. I guess the Knights of St. John had been pushed around by the Turks one time too many.
If you can only see one site when you visit Malta it has to be the Co-Cathedral of St. John in Valetta. It's the burial place of the Knights and is an architectural masterpiece. The Knights are buried under the floor and the top of each burial spot is adorned with colorful marble mosaics representing the person buried there and his history. Truly magnificent.
We've been there several times so we're heading out into the countryside to see the Megalithic Temples of Malta, circa 3600BC (Sorry, you won't get the politically correct BCE from me). These temples are among the most ancient religious sites in the world. For comparison, they are almost 1,000 years older than the Great Pyramid at Giza, 1,500 years older than Stonehenge, 2,000 years older than Knossos on Crete, 3,000 years older than the Acropolis in Athens and 3,600 years older than the Coliseum in Rome. Appropriately they are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
I won't say that the winds flow hard here or mostly from the south but the trees on the hilltops have they trunk on one side and all the branches and leaves to the north of the trunk.
There are several of these temples located on the island. We are visiting the Hagar Qim site. There are two temples here, the larger one is open for you to visit inside the other temple, Mnajdra, is 500 yards closer to the sea and is not open. Very little excavation has been done at that temple. The Hagar Qim temple is unusual in two aspects. First, it is on the crest of a hill rather than on a slope below the hilltop. It has a façade all the way around, not just on one side. Second, it has a large niche in the outer wall that has a monolith at its center not found on any of the other temples.
They are constructed using local Globigerina limestone. Much like Jerusalem limestone, when the sun shines on it, especially early and late in the day, it has a beautiful golden glow. Since this form of sandstone is fairly soft, they have built a fabric structure to cover the entire temple to protect it from the rain.
Like Stonehenge, these temples are part astronomical calendars. They have oracle holes cut through stones that allow the sun to shine into the temple at sunrise on the Solstices. A stone slab is positioned across the room from the oracle hole to display the image. The largest single block at Hagar Qim, also the largest in any temple on the island, is 21 feet long, 10 feet high and weighs over 20 tons.
First unearthed in 1647 they were thought to be the work of a race of giants. "Who but giants could move stones this large?" was the common conception.
From Hagar Qim we drove into the city of Valetta o see the Archaeological Museum of Valletta. When the Knights operated out of the city each of the 8 units had its own HQ/barracks called an Auberge. The museum is in the former Auberge de Provence c1575, the HQ of the French knights from Provence. The French had 3 units, each with it's own Auberge. The other 5 units were Spanish, German and Italian.
The walk to the museum took us past the Palace of the Prime Minister, previously the Auberge de Castille et Leon, another French unit of the Knights) and also the Upper Barracca Gardens. After walking one block downhill we turned on Merchant's Street and went about two blocks to the museum.
It has a collection of pottery, carvings and architectural features from all the temple sites as well as ancient towns around the islands. The most consistent and unique features are the spiral designs carved into the stones and the statues of very plump women. It's suspected that these statues are fertility symbols. Some of the very large stones in the temple wall appear to be phallic symbols, so I'm guessing that each sex had its own symbol. One carved stone altar caught my eye because it had a symbol carved on the sides that looks exactly like the Navajo representation of corn used in their sand paintings.
On our way back to the bus we bought some really great coconut/chocolate dipped macaroons. Some of the best I've ever had.
Our bus was not picking us up until 12:15pm so we had time to go to the Upper Barracca Gardens to look down on the Saluting Battery for the firing of the noon gun. They have a battery of 8 breach-loading, black powder cannons on the firing plaza. They appear to be about 6-8 inch bore. They go through a very formal ceremony to fire the gun. They load two of the cannons just in case they have a misfire on the first one. The first gun went off without a hitch at exactly noon.
We didn't do much in the afternoon, Diana is still not 100% so she rested while I wrote and worked on my photos. We are the last cruise ship to visit Malta until next spring so they gave us a 7-gun salute from the battery as we sailed out. Pretty cool!
Our entertainers tonight were Graffiti Classics. They're a string quartet with a most unusual act. They dance and strike poses while they play. The Irish base player is the commentator and he mugs for the audience while playing and works a lot of humor into the routines. In one number they start out standing up, go to one knee, sit on the floor with legs out in front, lay down flat and then return to being seated on the floor all while continuing to play. This is not so difficult for the two violins or the viola but the poor bass player really has to work. Last time we saw them they had a fill in bass player and he was not nearly as funny. I was glad to see the original bassist back and funny as ever.
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