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The inner part of the main
passage leads either to a central apse in the case of the
three-apse temples, or to a niche in the four-apse
temples. At Ta’ Hagrat, it was observed that the apse
was planned around the perimeter of a circle having the
last x-unit of the main passage as radius. It was also
noticed, that the construction of the apse was a bit
longer than the circumference of the circle. Thus the
whole circle fits within the apse. This can be observed
also at Skorba (Fig. 9), Kordin 3 West and Ggantija South.
The
x-unit was also used
as the width of the niche in the four-apse temples
such as Mnajdra South and Central. In the case of Tarxien
East and possibly Hagar Qim, (considering the innermost
pair of megaliths at the back doorway to be the walls of
the niche before it was re-arranged) the niche was to be
two x-units wide including its megaliths. This may have
been due to both temples having a rather short x-unit
resulting in an interior length of seven x-units.
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