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More
recent investigations have continued to build on this
earlier work, and the results are being presented here for
the first time. As indicated above, there is some kind of
relation between winter sunrise and the plans of the
temples. This finding led to the question whether the
internal layout of the temple was based on the behaviour
of sunlight at sunrise. The first observations were made
in December 1999 at Hagar Qim. As the sun rose, the beam
of sunlight inside the temple began to shift from the side
altar to the central passage. At one point it reached and
lit the exact length of the temple (photo 1). Some minutes
later, as the sun rose higher and came exactly in line
with the temple’s axis, its light could only reach up to
and include the second doorway (photo 2). It seemed as if
the temple builders may have used the sun’s light to
determine the length of the temple. It also may have
helped in planning the second doorway. But was this a
coincidence? And was it to be found at Hagar Qim only? Or
was it planned in other temples as well?
However,
there is a problem in verifying this. Not all the temple
main doorways are complete or as originally built. Some
have a number of megaliths missing, especially the lintel
(the horizontal slab on top of the uprights), while others
have been reconstructed, as in the case of Hagar Qim. In
spite of these limitations, however, careful observation
of the behaviour of sunlight in these structures may still
shed some light on the intentions of the builders.
The
following winter (December 2000), a similar observation
was made at Ggantija Temples. This time, with the
permission of the Museum authorities, some blocks of
expanded polystyrene were used to overcome the problem of
missing lintels. These polystyrene blocks were carefully
placed in the position of the missing lintels. The North
temple at Ggantija gave similar results (photo 3). A
slight difference was noted when the sun came in line with
the temple’s axis. Its direct light could only reach up
to the beginning of the second doorway (photo 4).
Similar
observations were made at Ggantija South. Light entering
through the present main doorway gave the same results as
Hagar Qim when the sun was exactly in front of the temple
(photo 5). But
great attention was also given to the second doorway in
the middle of the temple, which was probably the main
doorway of the original three-apse temple. There was a
different result when the sun came in line with the main
passage here. Its light could only reach up to the
beginning of the central apse. The same results were
obtained a year later (December 2001) at Ta’ Hagrat
three-apse temple (photo 6).
All
these results supported the hypothesis that there may be a
relationship between the plan of the temple and winter
sunrise. All these observations indicated that the main
doorway was carefully planned and constructed first. Then
the main passage was laid out according to the behaviour
of sunlight passing through the doorway.
But
the temples facing E-SE constitute only about one third of
all the temples on the Maltese Islands. Most of the others
face either South or South-West. Here, direct sunlight
enters through the temple doorway only partly, or not at
all. This would seem to contradict the hypothesis of a
relation with winter sunrise. And yet our temple builders
maintained the same form and plan for these sacred places.
Could our ancestors have used the behaviour of sunlight
only in the planning of the earlier temples? Could they
have departed from this method in the later examples? Did
they eventually develop a standard technique for planning
the temple that we could not understand till now?
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