Top 20 Caves 몰타

You can no longer access this cave as it has been fenced off due to rock fall

Għar Dalam (Cave of Darkness) is a karst cave in Birżebbuġa, in southeastern Malta. It is considered the oldest prehistoric site in the archipelago and contains the earliest evidence of human habitation, dating back 7,400 years. Bone of Ice Age animals, including dwarf elephants and hippos, has been found in the cave. The museum next to the cave displays the finds and explains the island's history.

If you don't mind taking a boat trip, you have the opportunity to take a look at Felstor from above, directly from the access road.

The cave was first mentioned in 1647 by the Maltese historian Giovanni Francesco Abela (1582–1655). Għar Dalam became known as a fossil bone site in 1865, when the Genoese geologist Arturo Issel (1842–1922), searching for Neanderthal remains, discovered the first hippopotamus bones there. In 1892, the English teacher John Henry Cooke conducted several excavations, uncovering a large number of Pleistocene animal bones. The success of these investigations led to the cave being visited by numerous fossil collectors over the next 30 years. It wasn't until 1922 that new, larger-scale scientific investigations were conducted. These were initiated by Gertrude Caton-Thompson (1888–1985), a British archaeologist, and later continued by her Maltese colleague Joseph G. Baldacchino (1894–1974). The vast amount of finds soon led to a storage problem, which is why a house was built over the cave by 1930. The cave itself was opened to visitors in March 1933, while excavations ended in 1937. Just a year earlier, a museum had been established on site.[1][2] During World War II, during the Second Great Siege of Malta, the cave served as a refuge for the population from bombing raids. The British armed forces also used it to store aircraft fuel from October 1940. The cave and museum did not reopen until 1947. However, no major excavations were carried out after the end of the Second World War. A few smaller excavations were carried out by the German paleontologist Gerhard Storch in the 1970s, which affected all sedimentary layers. Today, the cave is largely empty, with only two sedimentary columns remaining as reference profiles for clarifying the stratigraphy. A new, significantly larger exhibition hall opened next to the old museum building in 2002. Source: Wikipedia

Beautiful bay for diving and swimming. People also jump off the rocks. Small pebble beach with a few sunbeds and a few nice restaurants. Pedal boat and kayak rentals are also available.

Magnificent rock, fantastic cave with turquoise water. Visit in the morning if possible to avoid the sun.

Interesting place, here you can visit a cave, which you can walk through for about 70 m. In World War II it was also used as a bunker for protection. It is also an excavation site, in the entrance area there is a museum with exhibits.

A little further on we reach the catacombs of St. Paul. We buy tickets, start with the exhibition and go down into the crypt. The corridors branch out, in dim light, the atmosphere is mystical. Our thoughts are between adventure and trepidation. Impressed, we go back up. The almond trees are blooming beautifully around us. We go out and discover that there is much more history on the other side of the street. Laid out around the year 350, 1.5 square kilometers have been uncovered so far. Piece by piece we walk through the many small underground burial sites. The traditions of different religions come together here. Hardly recognizable from the outside, the stairs at each catacomb take us back over 1500 years. The narrow and narrow corridors, sometimes only crouching, we discover what we are looking at. In one catacomb, the large stone door is mighty and impressive. We try, but we can't move them. An information board at each entrance shows pictograms of what to expect. The entire complex is carved in and out of the stone. https://youtu.be/GAayPWQhGRM