Malta and the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, an underground sanctuary

In 1902, in Paola, just south of Valletta, workmen digging cisterns for new houses broke through the roof of an underground cavity. Beneath the houses appeared a labyrinth of chambers cut into the limestone, arranged on several levels. It was the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, the only prehistoric underground sanctuary and burial site of this size known so far, a witness to a civilisation that flourished in the Maltese archipelago between the fourth and third millennia BC.

Three levels in the rock

The first investigations were carried out by the Jesuit Manuel Magri, who died in 1907 leaving few notes, and continued by the Maltese archaeologist Themistocles Zammit. The hypogeum extends over three levels, dug in successive periods with tools of stone and antler. The upper level probably adapts a natural cave; the middle and lower ones were carved with surprising care, imitating in the rock the architecture of the temples built above ground.

Its phases of use fall roughly between 4000 and 2500 BC. The place served as a necropolis: according to Zammit's estimates, the remains of about seven thousand individuals were laid there, a figure later scholars regard as indicative. Alongside the bones were found pots, amulets, beads and figurines, testimony to the rites that accompanied burial.

The Sleeping Lady and the Oracle Room

The most famous find is the so-called Sleeping Lady, a terracotta statuette depicting a full-figured woman lying on her side on a low bed. It is now kept in the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta. Its meaning remains uncertain: ritual sleep, eternal rest or a deity linked to the earth have been suggested, but none of these readings can be proved with certainty.

In the middle level is the so-called Oracle Room, a small chamber with an elliptical niche. A deep male voice spoken inside it echoes throughout the hypogeum, an acoustic effect that has fuelled many hypotheses about its ceremonial use. The name, however, is modern. On the nearby ceilings spirals and motifs painted in red ochre survive, among the rare prehistoric paintings of the archipelago.

Not far away opens the hall called the Holy of Holies, with a carved facade imitating a trilithon entrance, with jambs and lintel, like those of the surface temples. It is one of the clearest examples of how the ancient Maltese sought to reproduce underground the sacred space they knew in the light of day.

The temples of Malta and Gozo

The hypogeum should be read together with the megalithic temples of the archipelago, among the oldest free-standing stone buildings in the world. On Gozo stand the temples of Ġgantija, which local legend attributed to a giantess; on Malta those of Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, the latter famous for the light that passes through its main doorway at the equinoxes, and the Tarxien complex, a short distance from the hypogeum.

Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1980, the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum is open to a very small number of visitors each day, to protect its delicate internal microclimate. This very fragility adds to its fascination: descending into its chambers means entering a space conceived for the dead and the sacred, which has remained silent for more than four thousand years.