The inner end of the main doorway is flanked by a pair of megaliths which overlap the inner slabs of the entrance. This arrangement makes the inner end of the main entrance wider than the doorway. Simultaneously, these megaliths are the first stones of the left and right apses. In this study this arrangement is called the stepped doorway.

It seems that the stepped doorway had a very important function in the construction of the temples. Its megaliths had to be very strong to withstand the pressure caused by the building of the lateral apses. Sometimes this pair of megaliths can still be seen towering over the rest of the main doorway as in the case of Ggantija South and the sole megalith at Skorba. The ‘bar holes’ of the doorway were made in them and can be seen in almost every temple.

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