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Introduction
Over
the past five years, several visits were made to the
world’s oldest free-standing buildings - the megalithic
temples. One of the first visits was made to the
three-apse (chamber) temple of Ta’ Hagrat, Mgarr at the
beginning of winter in December 1998. It was observed that
at that site there might be some kind of relation between
the plan of the main temple and winter solstice sunrise.
Ta’
Hagrat main temple is among several temples orientated in
an East South-east direction, towards sunrise at the
beginning of winter. These include the earlier-built
three-apse temples of Skorba and Ggantija South
(originally built as a three-apse temple) and the later
dated four-apse temples of Ggantija North, Hagar Qim main
building, Mnajdra South and Central. Together with these
temples, one can also include the underground temple known
as The Holy of Holies, at the Hypogeum, which, although
under six meters of rock, was hewn out in this direction
too.
In
an earlier contribution, it was argued that the
three-apsed temples of Ta’ Hagrat, Skorba, and Ggantija
South share some features in relation to the winter
sunrise. Their
orientation, the width and height of their doorway,
together with the height of the horizon in front of them
allow direct sunlight to enter through the doorway, and
reach the innermost, central apse at sunrise on the winter
solstice. It was also argued that the holes in the
floor-slabs in the doorway may have held wooden poles in
line with the rising sun, thus providing a permanent
marker for the builders.
In
the four-apse temples mentioned earlier, at winter
solstice sunlight is directed towards the altar positioned
between the main passage and the front west (left) apse. In these temples, a couple of megaliths
were placed between the main passage and the lateral apses
to serve as a screen. These screens, together with the
height and width of the doorway, make it impossible for
any direct sunlight to reach the lateral apses. It
was only directed to the central areas of the temple.
It was shown that the length of the beam of sunlight
inside a temple at sunrise could have been used as the radius of the arc of the concave façade. This resulted
in a less concave arc for Ta’ Hagrat and Ggantija South,
and a more concave façade at Ggantija North and Mnajdra
South. In another contribution, it was argued that the
beautiful façade of the Holy of Holies was also planned
on the same principles, although of course there is no
direct sunlight in this case. Moreover, the same measure
may have been responsible for the width of the façade of
the temples above ground as well as the Holy of Holies.
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