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Ħaġar Qim is one of the most important and best-preserved examples of megalithic architecture in the central Mediterranean, and part of the UNESCO-listed group known as the Megalithic Temples of Malta.

Ħaġar Qim is Maltese for “standing stones” or “worshipping stones”

It is located on the southern coast of Malta, overlooking the sea, and near Qrendi village

Built during the Ġgantija phase of Maltese prehistory c. 3600–3200 BCE
It features a complex of temple rooms made from massive limestone blocks, some weighing up to 20 tons.

There are semi-circular apses, are arranged in a cloverleaf or trefoil layout. Typical of Maltese temple design

There are also: corbelled walls, slab-paved floors, and trilithon doorways (two vertical stones with a horizontal capstone); Orthostats (large upright stone slabs) decorated with spirals, dots, and plant motifs

It is aligned to solar events, especially the summer solstice sunrise, which lights up specific interior stones

The site is thought to have been used for religious ceremonies, possibly involving fertility rites, ancestor worship, or nature cults

It has stone altars, ritual libation holes, and oracle holes, (or small porthole slabs used to speak or pass objects between chambers)

Famous for the “Venus of Malta”, an obese female figure, likely a fertility symbol. And, other seated or standing female figures, possibly goddesses or priestesses

Hagar Qim is part of a broader Neolithic temple-building tradition unique to Malta, including: Tarxien, Mnajdra and Ġgantija (on Gozo)

The temples predate Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Egypt, highlighting Malta’s early role in megalithic construction and neolithic architecture.

Bibliography: Stroud, Katya. Ħaġar Qim & Mnajdra Prehistoric Temples: Qrendi. Heritage Books, 2010. ISBN 978-99932-7-317-2

Heritage Malta (http://heritagemalta.org/museums-sites/hagar-qim-temples/)

Żammit, Sir T.; K. Mayrhofer (1995). The Prehistoric Temples of Malta and Gozo. Malta