Ġgantija Archaeological Park in Xagħra, Gozo, protects two adjoining stone temples built during Malta’s Neolithic period. Constructed before the pyramids of Egypt, their curving chambers, monumental façades and enormous limestone blocks show that prehistoric island communities could organise complex building, ritual and material exchange without metal tools or wheeled transport.
Ġgantija is part of the Megalithic Temples of Malta, inscribed by UNESCO in 1980 and expanded to six sites in 1992. The name derives from a later Maltese association with giants, an understandable response to the scale of the masonry but not archaeological evidence about the builders. Excavation instead reveals repeated use, animal remains, pottery and small figures connected with communal ritual.
