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The most architecturally refined and ornately decorated of Maltas prehistoric temples, Tarxien temples offer key insights into the religious, artistic, and ritual practices of Neolithic Maltese society

The Tarxien complex includes four separate but connected temple structures, built over several centuries
The south Temple, Most elaborate; includes decorated walls, altars, and carvings; The east Temple, smaller, with a similar multi-apse plan; and central Temple, constructed with advanced corbelling and careful stone alignment.

The site has rich stone decorations
There are carvings of spirals, animals, and plants. Including bulls and pigs.

There are also stone altars used for animal sacrifice or offerings

There is a massive lower half of a statue, possibly representing a mother goddess or fertility figure
Once standing over 2 meters tall.

There are libation holes, oracle chambers, and symbolic doorways
Suggesting complex ritual functions.

It was likely used for religious and ceremonial purposes, including: Fertility rituals; Seasonal celebrations; Animal sacrifices (confirmed by remains and cut marks on bones), and more

There is no evidence of human burials inside, indicating it was not a tomb, but a cult center

Around 1913, when farmers kept discovering blocks when plowing fields. They contacted Sir Themistocles Zammit, Maltas first archaeologist
It was one of the first sites to demonstrate that Maltese temples predate Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge.

Part of a unique island-wide tradition of megalithic temple building led by Maltas neolithic farming society. The Tarxien temples are a unique complex of archaeological masterpieces.

Bibliography: “Tarxien Temple” (https://web.archive.org/web/20150402143902/http://www.culturalheritage.gov.mt/filebank/inventory/00046.pdf) (PDF). National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands

Cilia, Daniel (8 April 2004). “Tarxien” (http://web.infinito.it/utenti/m/malta_mega_temples/tarxien
/tarxien.html). The Megalithic temples of Malta

British Museum collection (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/x45255)