Prehistoric Malta & Gozo

Departing: April 2027 - October 2027

Malta’s first inhabitants

The island of Malta might be small but it certainly packs a big punch in historical terms. In the struggle for dominion of the Mediterranean it has played a key role in centuries of sparring between the east and west. Enduring occupation from the Phoenicians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Normans, Sicilians, Hospitallers, French, and British, it has a colourful and complex heritage. Our focus, however, is on its earliest and most extraordinary occupation when some 5000 years ago this tiny archipelago was home to an astonishing culture which created elaborate stone temples and rock cut tombs. A thousand years before the Great Pyramid at Giza was erected, people on the tiny island of Malta were moving stones weighing up to 50 tonnes to make huge stone temples. Among the oldest ritual structures in the world, the number of them is astounding and in their complexity must have required considerable planning and organisation. Join us as we explore some of the island’s most extraordinary archaeology of a sophistication, character, and quantity unparalleled elsewhere.

Included

Explore Ghar Dalam Cave & Haġar-Qim, with entrance fees included
All other visits as outlined in the itinerary
Expert Guide Lecturer & professional Tour Manager
6 nights at the Grand Hotel Excelsior, Valetta
6 breakfasts, 5 lunches & 6 dinners
Wine & tea or coffee with dinner
Private air-conditioned coach travel
Field notes, taxes & gratuities for local staff

Highlights

Discover the extraordinary prehistoric culture whose stone monuments predate the pyramids by over 1,000 years
Explore the cave and associated museum at Ghar Dalam Cave, the lowest layers of which are over 500,000 years old
Enjoy the timeless atmosphere of Valetta, Malta’s charming UNESCO World Heritage capital city

Dr Jeremy Bennett

A British Archaeologist, his research focuses on the development of Agrarian Landscapes of Malta & Gozo. The pursuit of this theme requires a multi-facetted and inter-disciplinary approach utilising Geoarchaeological methods, Geographical information systems and cognitive Anthropological Theory.

Tour Itinerary

Arrive into Valetta and meet your expert Guide Lecturer and fellow travellers at your hotel.

Meals: Dinner
Accommodation: Grand Hotel Excelsior

Beginning in the town of Mġarr, we visit the two conjoined temples of Ta’ Haġrat and Mġarr, built during the 4th Millennium BCE. We continue to the village site of Skorba, which has made a significant contribution to our understanding of early Maltese prehistory, providing a stratigraphy from c5000 to 1500BCE. We spend the afternoon in Mdina – The Silent City – which served as the island capital from antiquity through to the medieval period, and end the day seeing some of the renowned ‘cart ruts’ in the hillside at Buskett – features that occur on both Malta and Gozo and are comprised of parallel grooves which have been worn into the bedrock, sometimes for long distances.