Valletta is full of Baroque palaces, and one of them holds objects older than the Pyramids. The National Museum of Archaeology is a short walk from the city gate, and it is the place to start if you want to understand why Malta’s temples are so famous.
A house of the Knights
The museum occupies the Auberge de Provence, built in 1574 as the seat of the Knights of the langue of Provence. It stood at the centre of public life in the early city. The architect Girolamo Cassar, who worked on much of Valletta, designed it, and the façade is decorated in the Baroque manner with Doric and Ionic columns.
The museum was set up here in 1958. At first it showed both archaeological finds and paintings by Maltese and Italian artists, until a reorganisation in 1974 sent the paintings to the Gallery of Fine Arts and left the building with archaeology only.
Neolithic Malta
The finds from the temple period are the main attraction. Prehistoric pottery, stone tools, human and animal figures and jewellery were recovered from the megalithic temples at Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, and the oldest artefacts are more than 5,000 years old.
Models of the principal temple complexes help here. They give a layout you can compare against what remains on site, which is the quickest way to make sense of low walls and standing stones when you visit later.
The two famous figures
Two statues dominate. The Sleeping Lady, found in the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, shows a reclining figure that has become something of an emblem of prehistoric Malta. The Venus of Malta, found at Ħaġar Qim, is a small seated figure of the type sometimes read as a fertility goddess.
Historians and archaeologists generally see these figures as sacred and connected with fertility. They are smaller than most people expect, and the case lighting does a good job of showing the carved detail.
Later periods
The museum continues past prehistory into the Bronze Age, Punic, ancient, Arabic and medieval periods. In the Roman section you will find oil lamps from catacombs, glass dishes and funerary equipment.
These galleries tend to be quieter, because the temple room draws most of the visitors. They are worth the time if you want a sense of how many cultures passed through the islands.
Planning around the temples
The best sequence is museum first, then sites. At Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, in the south, and Ġgantija on Gozo, many of the original objects are no longer on site, so the museum is where the figures and pottery live. The Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum has its own timed access and needs advance booking, which is a separate matter from the museum.
If you can only do one, make it the museum on a day when your time at the temples is short. Going the other way works too, but the temples are less rewarding without the finds in mind.
Roman and Punic Malta
Because the temples take most of the attention, the later periods are easy to skip. They are worth ten minutes each. The Punic material shows Malta as a Phoenician and Carthaginian outpost in the central Mediterranean, and the Roman material, with its lamps and glassware, fits what you may see later at the Domvs Romana in Rabat.
Look at everyday items rather than the grand pieces. A simple oil lamp or a bead necklace tells you more about daily life than a carved block does, and the labels explain where each piece was found.
Reading the temple models
The scale models are easy to overlook, but they give the layout of the clover-leaf plans of Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, with rooms arranged around a central passage. Spend a few minutes at them, then photograph them if photography is allowed. Looking at the picture beforehand makes the walk around the real ruins quicker.
Visit tips
The collection is compact, and most people take between one and two hours. Check the current hours before you go, because the winter and summer schedules differ and some days are closed.
Combine the visit with the rest of Republic Street. The Grandmaster’s Palace, St John’s Co-Cathedral and the National Library are all a short walk, and cafes along the street suit a coffee break. Go in the morning, before groups arrive, if you want an unhurried look at the figures.
