The Azure Window is a natural arch in Dwejra Bay, Gozo. Nowadays, the Azure Window is impossible to visit because it collapsed in March, 2017.
Claire Fontaine, Joseph de Ca'th Lon, Tina Picotes and The Grandma have visited Malta several times and they could visit and see this wonderful arch before collapsing. Today, they have visited Dwejra Bay to contemplate the views without the arch and to remember together how it was. They have joined past photos to evocate this wonderful creation of Nature.
The Azure Window, in Maltese it-Tieqa Żerqa, also known as the Dwejra Window or it-Tieqa tad-Dwejra, was a 28-metre-tall natural arch in Gozo.
Old Grandma's memories in Dwejra
The limestone feature, which was located in Dwejra Bay close to the Inland Sea and Fungus Rock, was one of the island's major tourist attractions until it collapsed in stormy weather on 8 March 2017.
The arch, together with other natural features in the area, has appeared in a number of international films and media productions. The arch, which consisted of a rock pillar rising joined to the cliff by a horizontal slab, was created by the collapse of a sea cave, probably during the 19th century. The final collapse followed a century of successive erosion, in which large sections of the limestone arch had broken off and fallen into the sea.
The Azure Window developed through sea erosion of a cliff face. The progress starts with an initial notch resulting from wave action. This space devoid of rock then causes tensile stresses that lead to the formation of a vertical joint extending upwards from the notch. This joint would progressively become wider, first forming a cave and eventually an arch.
Old Joseph's memories in Dwejra
The end of the lifecycle of the arch is reached when erosion finally progressed so far that the roof of the arch gets heavier than the pillars can support. It is not known exactly when the arch came to being, but the entire process is believed to have taken around 500 years.
The arch is not mentioned in 17th- and 18th-century descriptions of the Dwejra area, which was already famous due to the nearby Fungus Rock, so it probably did not exist then.
Giovanni Francesco Abela's 1647 book Della Descrizione di Maltaand De Soldanis' 1746 manuscript Il Gozo Antico-Moderno e Sacro-Profano both mention a Tieqa Żerqa, written archaically as Tieka Szerka, or Għar iż-Żerqa, but this referred to the cave entrance to the nearby Inland Sea. It is likely that when the Azure Window formed it inherited its name from this other cave.
Old Grandma and Claire's memories in Dwejra
The earliest known record of the Azure Window is in an 1824 illustration of the nearby Dwejra Tower.
However, it is shown in the background of the image, and it is unclear whether it was still a cave or if it had already developed into an arch.
In 1866, artist Edward Lear visited Dwejra and stated in his journal that the coast scenery is not nearly as fine as that of Malta, suggesting that the arch did not exist. The earliest recorded photographs of the natural arch were probably taken by Richard Ellis, and they are found in an album belonging to Michael Dundon dated 26 July 1879. This means that the window might have formed sometime between 1866 and 1879. The photo by Ellis was published in a book in 2011, showing contrasting difference with 20th and 21st century photos.
Throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries, the arch was one of Malta's main tourist landmarks, and it was a popular backdrop in photographs. It was included in a Special Area of Conservation, and in 1998, included on Malta's tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, along with the rest of Dwejra Bay.
Old Claire's memories in Dwejra
Between the 1980s and the 2000s, parts of the top slab of the arch collapsed, significantly widening the arch. A large slab of rock on the outer edge of the cavity collapsed in April 2012, further increasing the size of the window. Another rock fall occurred in March 2013.
Four months later a geological and geotechnical report was prepared by consultant Peter Gatt, who represented local firm Geoscience Consulting Ltd, and it determined that the arch was relatively stable and will continue to remain so for a number of years, and that there was no imminent risk of collapse, although it warned that rock falls will continue and it might be hazardous for people to go close to the arch.
Further rock falls and fissures were reported in subsequent years. Fishermen avoided going near the arch with their boats, and warning signs were put up to discourage people from walking on top. However, many people still went on the arch on a regular basis, and videos were uploaded on YouTube of people cliff diving from the window as rocks were falling down.
Old Grandma's memories in Dwejra
In March 2016, Gatt warned that the illegal use of explosives at the nearby Inland Sea could have an effect on the already weak structure of the nearby Azure Window.
These comments were made in the wake of an investigation by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority which revealed that explosive material was probably used to do rock cutting in the tunnel leading to the Inland Sea. It was suspected that the illegal cutting was aimed at widening the entrance to allow larger boats to sail through.
In December 2016, an emergency order was published prohibiting people from going on the arch. However, this law was not enforced, and visitors were still walking on top of the arch days before it collapsed in March 2017.
The arch collapsed at about 9:40 am local time on 8 March 2017 after a period of heavy storms, leaving nothing visible above the water.The pillar gave way first, causing the top part of the arch to collapse along with it.
Old Tina's memories in Dwejra
The pillar shattered into large chunks of rock as it collapsed. The collapse was said to have been inevitable. The collapse was reported in both local and international media. The Environment and Resources Authority called the collapse a major loss to Malta's natural heritage. The Church's Environment Commission said that the collapse should make the Maltese people reflect on their national heritage. The San Lawrenz local council urged the government to establish a management plan for the entire Dwejra area, which includes several other notable features despite the loss of the Azure Window.
On the day of the collapse, police appealed to the public not to visit the area. Diving in the area was temporarily banned, although this was not enforced and footage of the remains of the arch underwater emerged a few days after the collapse. The remains of the arch have formed a number of features which have been called a divers' paradise, although it is still advised to keep away from the area until surveys and inspections are carried out.
Old Claire's memories in Dwejra
On 9 March, the government announced that it would launch an international initiative on the future of Dwejra.
The options being considered include leaving the site as is, retrieving the remains of the window from the seabed and exhibiting them, creating an artificial or an augmented reality reconstruction of the window, establishing an interpretation centre or creating an art installation at the site. The government stated that the rock formation will not be rebuilt.
The Azure Window was a natural arch with a height of about 28 m and a span of around 25 m. It was at the tip of a headland known as Dwejra Point. The arch was found within the Lower Coralline Limestone Formation, a succession of sedimentary rocks that is widespread on the Maltese Islands and was deposited during the Oligocene.
The arch was located near the Inland Sea, a large circular sinkhole reached by a small arch that developed along a joint in the rocks. Fungus Rock, an islet that was formed when the bridge of a natural arch collapsed leaving a stack, is also found nearby.
The area also contains the Dwejra Tower, a 17th-century coastal watchtower built by the Order of St. John. Another natural arch, the Wied il-Mielaħ Window, is about 3.7 km northeast of Dwejra. It is, however, less known than the Azure Window.
Today is the World Oceans Day and The Grandma and her friends, who are in Malta, have decided to talk about the MediterraneanSea, source of culture, history and biodiversity.
The Mediterranean Sea determines the lives of the inhabitants of its coasts and provides them food, resources and culture. Although some lines mark the borders to create countries, share languages or religions, there is something in common in these countries: the Sea and its role as a source of culture, commerce and communications.
The Mediterranean countries have a special idiosyncrasy and although these countries shares different languages or religions, they have a Mediterranean lifestyle which makes them more similar than they can think.
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa and on the east by the Levant. Although the sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is usually identified as a separate body of water.
Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago, the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years, the Messinian salinity crisis, before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago.
Posidonia on the Mediterranean seabed
It covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, but its connection to the Atlantic, the Strait of Gibraltar, is only 14 km wide. The Mediterranean Sea has an average depth of 1,500 m and the deepest recorded point is 5,267 m in the Calypso Deep in the Ionian Sea.
The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia, and in the south by Africa. The Mediterranean Sea, including the Sea of Marmara, connected by the Dardanelles to the Aegean Sea, has a surface area of approximately 2,510,000 square km.
The sea was an important route for merchants and travellers of ancient times that allowed for trade and cultural exchange between emergent peoples of the region.
The history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies.
The Ancient Greeks called the Mediterranean simply η θάλασσαthe Sea or sometimes η μεγάλη θάλασσαthe Great Sea, η ημέτερα θάλασσαOur Sea, or η θάλασσα η καθ'εμάς the sea around us. The Romans called it Mare MagnumGreat Sea or Mare InternumInternal Sea and, starting with the Roman Empire, Mare NostrumOur Sea. The term Mare Mediterrāneum appears later: Solinus apparently used it in the 3rd century. It means in the middle of land, inland in Latin, a compound of medius 'middle', terra 'land, earth' and -āneus 'having the nature of'.
The Mediterranean Sea in Rhodes, Greece
Ancient civilizations were located around the Mediterranean shores and were greatly influenced by their proximity to the sea.
It provided routes for trade, colonization, and war, as well as food, from fishing and the gathering of other seafood, for numerous communities throughout the ages. Due to the shared climate, geology, and access to the sea, cultures centered on the Mediterranean tended to have some extent of intertwined culture and history.
Large islands in the Mediterranean include Cyprus, Crete, Euboea, Rhodes, Lesbos, Chios, Kefalonia, Corfu, Limnos, Samos, Naxos and Andros in the Eastern Mediterranean; Sicily, Cres, Krk, Brač, Hvar, Pag, Korčula and Malta in the central Mediterranean; Sardinia, Corsica, and the Balearic Islands: Ibiza, Majorca, and Menorca in the Western Mediterranean.
The typical Mediterranean climate has hot, humid, and dry summers and mild, rainy winters. Crops of the region include olives, grapes, oranges, tangerines, and cork. Being nearly landlocked affects conditions in the Mediterranean Sea: for instance, tides are very limited as a result of the narrow connection with the Atlantic Ocean. The Mediterranean is characterised and immediately recognised by its deep blue colour.
Dolphins in the Mediterranean Sea
Evaporation greatly exceeds precipitation and river runoff in the Mediterranean, a fact that is central to the water circulation within the basin.
Evaporation is especially high in its eastern half, causing the water level to decrease and salinity to increase eastward.
The salinity at 5 m depth is 3.8%. The temperature of the water in the deepest part of the Mediterranean Sea is 13.2 °C.
The geologic history of the Mediterranean Sea is complex. Underlain by oceanic crust, the sea basin was once thought to be a tectonic remnant of the ancient Tethys Ocean; it is now known to be a structurally younger basin, called the Neotethys, which was first formed by the convergence of the African and Eurasian plates during the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic.
Because it is a near-landlocked body of water in a normally dry climate, the Mediterranean is subject to intensive evaporation and the precipitation of evaporites. The Messinian salinity crisis started about six million years ago when the Mediterranean became landlocked, and then essentially dried up.
Gli Faraglioni in Capri, Naples
There are salt deposits accumulated on the bottom of the basin of more than a million cubic kilometres, in some places more than three kilometres thick. A shallow submarine ridge, the Strait of Sicily, between the island of Sicily and the coast of Tunisia divides the sea in two main subregions: the Western Mediterranean, with an area of about 850 thousand km2; and the Eastern Mediterranean, of about 1.65 million km2. A characteristic of the coastal Mediterranean are submarine karst springs or vruljas, which discharge pressurised groundwater into the coastal seawater from below the surface; the discharge water is usually fresh, and sometimes may be thermal.
During Mesozoic and Cenozoic times, as the northwest corner of Africa converged on Iberia, it lifted the Betic-Rif mountain belts across southern Iberia and northwest Africa. There the development of the intramontane Betic and Rif basins led to creating two roughly-parallel marine gateways between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
A manta ray in the Mediterranean Sea
Dubbed the Betic and Rifian corridors, they progressively closed during middle and late Miocene times; perhaps several times.
During late Miocene times the closure of the Betic Corridor triggered the so-called Messinian salinity crisis, when the Mediterranean almost entirely dried out.
The time of beginning of the Messinian salinity crisis was recently estimated astronomically at 5.96 mya, and it persisted for some 630,000 years until about 5.3 mya.
After the initial drawdown and re-flooding there followed more episodes, the total number is debated, of sea drawdowns and re-floodings for the duration of the Messinian salinity crisis.
It ended when the Atlantic Ocean last re-flooded the basin, creating the Strait of Gibraltar and causing the Zanclean flood, at the end of the Miocene, 5.33 mya.
The present-day Atlantic gateway, the Strait of Gibraltar, originated in the early Pliocene via the Zanclean Flood. The former gateway closed about 6 mya, causing the Messinian salinity crisis; the latter or possibly both gateways closed during the earlier Tortonian times, causing a Tortonian salinity crisis, from 11.6 to 7.2 mya, which occurred well before the Messinian salinity crisis and lasted much longer.
Catalan Bay, Gibraltar, United Kingdom
Both crises resulted in broad connections of the mainlands of Africa and Europe, which thereby normalised migrations of flora and fauna, especially large mammals including primates, between the two continents.
The Vallesian crisis indicates a typical extinction and replacement of mammal species in Europe during Tortonian times following climatic upheaval and overland migrations of new species.
The near-completely enclosed configuration of the Mediterranean basin has enabled the oceanic gateways to dominate seawater circulation and the environmental evolution of the sea and basin. Circulation patterns are also affected by several other factors, including climate, bathymetry, and water chemistry and temperature, which are interactive and can induce precipitation of evaporites.
Today, evaporation of surface seawater is more than the supply of fresh water by precipitation and coastal drainage systems, causing the salinity of the Mediterranean to be much higher than that of the Atlantic, so much so that the saltier Mediterranean waters sink below the waters incoming from the Atlantic, causing a two-layer flow across the Gibraltar strait: that is, an outflow submarine current of warm saline Mediterranean water, counterbalanced by an inflow surface current of less saline cold oceanic water from the Atlantic.
A Mediterranean red sea star aka Echinaster sepositus
The end of the Miocene changed the Mediterranean basin. Fossil evidence reveals a humid subtropical climate with rainfall in the summer supporting laurel forests.
The shift to a Mediterranean climate occurred largely within the last 3 million years, as summer rainfall decreased.
The subtropical laurel forests retreated; and even as they persisted on the islands of Macaronesia off the Atlantic coast of Iberia and North Africa, the present Mediterranean vegetation evolved, dominated by coniferous trees and sclerophyllous trees and shrubs with small, hard, waxy leaves that prevent moisture loss in the dry summers. Much of these forests and shrublands have been altered beyond recognition by thousands of years of human habitation. There are now very few relatively intact natural areas in what was once a heavily wooded region.
The Mediterranean Sea in Tunisia
Because of its latitudinal position and its land-locked configuration, the Mediterranean is especially sensitive to astronomically induced climatic variations, which are well documented in its sedimentary record.
Since the Mediterranean is involved in the deposition of eolian dust from the Sahara during dry periods, whereas riverine detrital input prevails during wet ones, the Mediterranean marine sapropel-bearing sequences provide high-resolution climatic information.
As a result of the drying of the sea during the Messinian salinity crisis, the marine biota of the Mediterranean are derived primarily from the Atlantic Ocean. The North Atlantic is considerably colder and more nutrient-rich than the Mediterranean, and the marine life of the Mediterranean has had to adapt to its differing conditions in the five million years since the basin was reflooded.
Sea urchins on the Mediterranean seabed
The Alboran Sea is a transition zone between the two seas, containing a mix of Mediterranean and Atlantic species.
The Alboran Sea has the largest population of bottlenose dolphins in the Western Mediterranean, is home to the last population of harbour porpoises in the Mediterranean, and is the most important feeding grounds for loggerhead sea turtles in Europe. The Alboran Sea also hosts important commercial fisheries, including sardines and swordfish. The Mediterranean monk seals live in the Aegean Sea in Greece.
The region has a variety of geological hazards which have closely interacted with human activity and land use patterns. Among others, in the eastern Mediterranean, the Thera eruption, dated to the 17th or 16th century BC, caused a large tsunami that some experts hypothesise devastated the Minoan civilisation on the nearby island of Crete, further leading some to believe that this may have been the catastrophe that inspired the Atlantis legend.
Mount Vesuvius is the only active volcano on the European mainland, while others as Mount Etna and Stromboli are to be found on neighbouring islands. The region around Vesuvius including the Phlegraean Fields Caldera west of Naples are quite active and constitute the most densely populated volcanic region in the world and eruptive event may occur within decades.
Stromboli Volcano in Stromboli Island, Sicily
Vesuvius itself is regarded as quite dangerous due to a tendency towards explosive, Plinian, eruptions. It is best known for its eruption in AD 79 that led to the burying and destruction of the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Unlike the vast multidirectional Ocean currents in open Oceans within their respective Oceanic zones; biodiversity in the Mediterranean Sea is that of a stable one due to the subtle but strong locked nature of currents which affects favorably, even the smallest macroscopic type of Volcanic Life Form.
The stable Marine ecosystem of the Mediterranean Sea and sea temperature provides a nourishing environment for life in the deep sea to flourish while assuring a balanced Aquatic ecosystem excluded from any external deep oceanic factors.
An octopus on the Mediterranean seabed
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 created the first salt-water passage between the Mediterranean and Red Sea. The Red Sea is higher than the Eastern Mediterranean, so the canal serves as a tidal strait that pours Red Sea water into the Mediterranean.
The Bitter Lakes, which are hyper-saline natural lakes that form part of the canal, blocked the migration of Red Sea species into the Mediterranean for many decades, but as the salinity of the lakes gradually equalised with that of the Red Sea, the barrier to migration was removed, and plants and animals from the Red Sea have begun to colonisethe Eastern Mediterranean.
The Red Sea is generally saltier and more nutrient-poor than the Atlantic, so the Red Sea species have advantages over Atlantic species in the salty and nutrient-poor Eastern Mediterranean. Accordingly, Red Sea species invade the Mediterranean biota, and not vice versa; this phenomenon is known as the Lessepsian migration, after Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French engineer, or Erythrean invasion.
A seahorse in the Mediterranean Sea
The construction of the Aswan High Dam across the Nile River in the 1960s reduced the inflow of freshwater and nutrient-rich silt from the Nile into the Eastern Mediterranean, making conditions there even more like the Red Sea and worsening the impact of the invasive species.
Invasive species have become a major component of the Mediterranean ecosystem and have serious impacts on the Mediterranean ecology, endangering many local and endemic Mediterranean species.
A first look at some groups of exotic species show that more than 70% of the non-indigenous decapods and about 63% of the exotic fishes occurring in the Mediterranean are of Indo Pacific origin, introduced into the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal.
A whale in the Mediterranean Coast
This makes the Canal as the first pathway of arrival of alien species into the Mediterranean. The impacts of some lessepsian species have proven to be considerable mainly in the Levantine basin of the Mediterranean, where they are replacing native species and becoming a familiar sight.
In recent decades, the arrival of exotic species from the tropical Atlantic has become a noticeable feature. Whether this reflects an expansion of the natural area of these species that now enter the Mediterranean through the Gibraltar strait, because of a warming trend of the water caused by global warming; or an extension of the maritime traffic; or is simply the result of a more intense scientific investigation, is still an open question.
By 2100 the overall level of the Mediterranean could rise between 3 to 61 cm as a result of the effects of climate change. This could have adverse effects on populations across the Mediterranean.
Ithaca Island, Ionian/Mediterranean Sea, Greece
Rising sea levels will also mean rising salt water levels in Malta's groundwater supply and reduce the availability of drinking water.
A 30 cm rise in sea level would flood 200 square kilometres of the Nile Delta, displacing over 500,000 Egyptians.
Coastal ecosystems also appear to be threatened by sea level rise, especially enclosed seas such as the Baltic, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. These seas have only small and primarily east-west movement corridors, which may restrict northward displacement of organisms in these areas.
Pollution in this region has been extremely high in recent years. The Barcelona Convention aims to reduce pollution in the Mediterranean Sea and protect and improve the marine environment in the area, thereby contributing to its sustainable development.
A sea turtle in the Mediterranean Sea
Many marine species have been almost wiped out because of the sea's pollution.
One of them is the Mediterranean monk seal which is considered to be among the world's most endangered marine mammals.
The Mediterranean is also plagued by marine debris. A 1994 study of the seabed using trawl nets around the coasts of Europe reported a particularly high mean concentration of debris; an average of 1,935 items per km2. Plastic debris accounted for 76%, of which 94% was plastic bags.
Fish stock levels in the Mediterranean Sea are alarmingly low. The European Environment Agency says that more than 65% of all fish stocks in the region are outside safe biological limits and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, that some of the most important fisheries, such as albacore and bluefin tuna, hake, marlin, swordfish, red mullet and sea bream, are threatened.
Whale shark aka the rhincodon typus
There are clear indications that catch size and quality have declined, often dramatically, and in many areas larger and longer-lived species have disappeared entirely from commercial catches. Large open water fish like tuna have been a shared fisheries resource for thousands of years but the stocks are now dangerously low.
In 1999, Greenpeace published a report revealing that the amount of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean had decreased by over 80% in the previous 20 years and government scientists warn that without immediate action the stock will collapse.
A voyage to Europe in the summer of 1921 gave me the first opportunity of observing the wonderful blue opalescence of the Mediterranean Sea. It seemed not unlikely that the phenomenon owed its origin to the scattering of sunlight by the molecules of the water.
Today, Claire Fontaine, who is a great fan of cinema and comics, has proposed to visit Popeye Village in Mellieħa,the set which was used to film Popeye and which is now a fun park. The four friends have spent a funny day in the village.
Popeye Village, also known as Sweethaven Village and Danish Village, is a purpose-built film set village, now converted into a small attraction fun park, consisting of a collection of rustic and ramshackle wooden buildings. It is located at Anchor Bay, 3 kilometres from the village core of Mellieħa.
It was built as a film set for the production of the 1980 live-action musical feature film Popeye, produced by Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions starring Robin Williams. Today it is open to the public as an open-air museum and family entertainment complex.
It was designed by Danish architect Hans Munk Hansen. It is made of modernist and post-war buildings and pathways. There have been significant changes since then to turn it into a sea-side resort, such as a recreational waterpark and a Christmas village.
Visiting Popeye's Village in Mellieħa, Malta
The construction of the film set began in June 1979. A construction crew of 165 working over seven months was needed to build the village, which consists of nineteen wooden buildings.
Hundreds of logs and several thousand wooden planks were imported from the Netherlands, while wood shingles used in the construction of the roof tops were imported from Canada. Eight tons of nails and 2.5 cubic metres of paint were also used in construction.
In addition, a 60–75 metre breakwater was built around Anchor Bay's mouth to protect the set from high seas during the shooting.
The set was completed in seven months, and filming commenced on January 23, 1980 and wrapped later that year on June 19. The film, based on the comic strips by E. C. Segar, is set around the fictional village of Sweethaven, where the sailor Popeye arrives in an attempt to find his long-lost father.
The Grandma & Joseph in Popeye's Village
Although the film had mixed reviews, Popeye Village remains a popular tourist attraction.
Popeye Village is open to the public seven days a week and, apart from the film set itself, has a number of family attractions for the visitor to experience.
There are shows, rides and museums, as well as play houses where children can climb and explore the village. Children may also get to meet the main characters from the show such as Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto and Wimpy.
Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar. The character first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip, Thimble Theatre, on January 17, 1929, and Popeye became the strip's title in later years; Popeye has also appeared in theatrical and television animated cartoons.
Segar's Thimble Theatre strip was in its 10th year when Popeye made his debut, but the one-eyed sailor quickly became the main focus of the strip, and Thimble Theatre became one of King Features' most popular properties during the 1930s.
After Segar's death in 1938, Thimble Theatre was continued by several writers and artists, most notably Segar's assistant Bud Sagendorf. The strip continues to appear in first-run installments in its Sunday edition, written and drawn by Hy Eisman. The daily strips are reprints of old Sagendorf stories.
In 1933, Max Fleischer adapted the Thimble Theatre characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. These cartoons proved to be among the most popular of the 1930s, and Fleischer, and later Paramount's own Famous Studios, continued production through 1957.
These cartoon shorts are now owned by Turner Entertainment, a subsidiary of Time Warner, and distributed by its sister company Warner Bros. Entertainment.
Over the years, Popeye has also appeared in comic books, television cartoons, arcade and video games, hundreds of advertisements, and peripheral products, ranging from spinach to candy cigarettes, and the 1980 live-action film directed by Robert Altman, starring comedian Robin Williams as Popeye.
In 2002, TV Guide ranked Popeye #20 on its 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time list.
Today, Tina Picotes, Claire Fontaine, Joseph de Ca'th Lon and The Grandma have visited the Megalithic temples of Hagar Qim near Mnajdra in Qrendi.
All of them were astonished after their last visit to Mnajdra temples and they have returned to visit another Megalithic complex. Joseph de Ca'th Lon, who is an international expert about History and Anthropology, has explained all the secrets of this temple to the rest of the group.
Ħaġar Qim, in Maltese means Standing/Worshipping Stones, is a megalithic temple complex found on the Mediterranean island of Malta, dating from the Ġgantija phase (3600-3200 BC).
The Megalithic Temples of Malta are among the most ancient religious sites on Earth, described by the World Heritage Sites committee as unique architectural masterpieces.
In 1992 UNESCO recognized Ħaġar Qim and four other Maltese megalithic structures as World Heritage Sites. V. Gordon Childe, Professor of Prehistoric European Archeology and director of the Institute of Archaeology in the University of London from 1946-1957 visited Ħaġar Qim. He wrote, I have been visiting the prehistoric ruins all round the Mediterranean, from Mesopotamia to Egypt, Greece and Switzerland, but I have nowhere seen a place as old as this one.
Joseph de Ca'th Lon in Ħaġar Qim, Qrendi
Ħaġar Qim's builders used globigerina limestone in the temple's construction. As a result of this, the temple has suffered from severe weathering and surface flaking over the millennia. In 2009 work was completed on a protective tent.
The megalithic complex of Ħaġar Qim is located on the southern edge of the island of Malta, on a ridge capped in soft globigerina limestone.
All exposed rock on the island was deposited during the Oligocene and Miocene periods of geological time. Globigerina limestone is the second oldest rock on Malta, outcropping over approximately 70% of the area of the islands. The builders used this stone throughout the temple architecture.
The temple’s façade is characterized by a trilithon entrance, outer bench and orthostats. It has a wide forecourt with a retaining wall and a passage runs through the middle of the building, following a modified Maltese megalithic design. A separate entrance gives access to four independent enclosures which replace the north-westerly apse.
Claire Fontaine in Ħaġar Qim Temple, Qrendi
Features of temple architecture reveal possible associations with fertility rituals, including corpulent figurines and statuary, together with solar alignments and a megalith which it has been argued is phallic.
The presence of an altar with a concave top indicated a possible use for animal sacrifices. It has also been suggested that screened doorways at the heart of the complex point towards possible use by oracles. Excavation also uncovered decorated pottery. The best examples can be seen at The National Museum of Archaeology.
No burials exist in the temple or the area surrounding Ħaġar Qim, nor have any human bones been discovered in Maltese temples. Bones of numerous sacrificial animals have been found. It is theorized that the Ħaġar Qim complex was built in three stages, beginning with the Old Temple northern apses, followed by the New Temple, and finally the completion of the entire structure.
A few hundred metres from the temple is one of the thirteen watchtowers built by Grand Master Martin de Redin, called Ħamrija Tower. A memorial to General Sir Walter Norris Congreve, Governor of Malta from 1924–1927, is located nearby. The village of Qrendi is a further two kilometres southwest of the temple complex.
The Grandma in Ħaġar Qim Temple, Qrendi
The Ħaġar Qim complex consists of a main temple and three additional megalithic structures beside it. The main temple was built between 3600 and 3200 BC; however, the northern ruins are considerably older. The outside entrance serves as an interior passage and connects six large chambers. The right apse is constructed as an arch to prevent the upright slabs falling inward.
The outside wall, built of huge upright blocks, projects inwards, thus creating an extremely solid building. This entrance passage and first court follow the Maltese megalithic pattern but as building progressed, this design was considerably modified. The northwesterly apse was replaced by four independent enclosures.
Ħaġar Qim shares its basic architectural design with the Mnajdra, Tarxien and Ġgantija temple complexes. The basic shape includes forecourt and façade, elongated oval chambers, semi-circular recesses and a central passage connecting the chambers. This configuration is commonly termed trefoil. It is also suggested that the shape of the temple in some way mimics the sacred sculptures found within them.
The Northern Temple's first recess contains a round stone pillar and a rectangular slab held vertically ahead of the pillar. Resting on the slab are spherical hollows which may have served as holders in which to stand small libation jars. Jars excavated from the site are characterized by a specifically oval base, designed to stand upright when placed in the slab. Remnants of the vertical blocks which once flanked the recess are still observable today. To the right of this chamber is another recess, containing an acoustic opening called the oracle hole.
Sound passed from the main chamber into the recess, and vice versa. The hole has also been linked to alignments of the Summer solstice. On the right side of the chamber is a horizontal block that may have served as seating.
The 17th century Maltese historian Giacomo Abela wrote in his 1647 Discrittione di Malta that the ruins of Ħaġar Qim were indubitable evidence of the fact that the first inhabitants of Malta were of the race of Giants.
Seeing the Mediterranean Sea from Ħaġar Qim
Ħaġar Qim was first explored in 1839 at public expense during the Governorship of Sir Henry Bouverie, by J. G. Vance of the Royal Engineers. Within two short months, that officer had made a plan of the buildings and sent to Valletta a stone altar, a decorated slab and seven stone statuettes which are now exhibited in the Valletta Museum. The account of his excavations was published in 1842. In 1885, Dr. A. A. Caruana made further excavations and published a lengthy report with elaborate plans, sections and views, drawn by Dr. Philip Vassallo of the Public Works Department.
Further excavations were carried out in 1909 by Sir Themistocles Zammit and Thomas Eric Peet. The British School at Rome directed subsequent excavations to ensure that all ruins in the Ħaġar Qim area had been identified.
Sir Themistocles was part of the Research Council selected by the First International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Science.
The Venus of Malta
In 1910, the surrounding fields were carefully searched and the ruins themselves accurately surveyed by members of the British School at Rome who repaired some of the damaged structures and made a rich collection of potsherds, flint implements, stone and clay objects, now deposited in the Valletta Museum.
On 17 September 1949, three statuettes and several pieces of a much larger stone statue were discovered buried beneath a rectangular stone. The Venus of Malta, which shares similar characteristics with the Ħaġar Qim statuettes, was discovered on 31 March 1950. It is important to note that the absence of sexual characteristics on the more developed types of Maltese cult-statuettes may imply that the being represented is in fact asexual.
Little has been done to restore the temple with the exception of reinforcing or replacing several stones, including the lintel, in the 1950s. Shelters have been constructed by Ħeritage Malta in an attempt to shield the temples from further erosion.
