It’s one of the most popular tourist destinations on the planet thanks to a stunning climate, white beaches, street festivities, rich history and culture. On top of the list are the many Malta dive sites. The coast is littered with underwater ship wrecks that visitors love to dive to. But, that’s not all. With Malta’s heritage comes the oldest temples on earth, and several of them rest beneath the waves of the beautiful blue ocean that hugs the Malta coastline, making Malta one of the most exciting dive sites in the world.
Malta’s Underwater Temples
Structures resembling temples from the megalithic period have been discovered on the ocean floor. Studies are underway to determine if they are actually temples or just extremely artistic formations by Mother Nature. The recent discovery of another structure has raised considerable interest from the international archaeology community with many coming to Malta to dive to the site for study purposes. Staying at some of the beautiful hotels and then diving to study the structures as a means to uncover the history, is not actually considered an important exercise because the temple is not considered major archaeological find.
The lack of importance placed on the discovery is somewhat confusing considering, if the structure is confirmed to be a temple, it will be the largest prehistoric complex on earth. There are already three documented prehistoric temples on the sea-bed just off Malta which are proving to be popular dive sites for tourists and locals like. Systematic documentation still needs to take place as archaeologists and divers alike study the temples.
Some temple stones sitting atop their steeples can be seen peeping out the top of the oceans and studies have confirmed that unlike many prehistoric temples that face the sun, many of those considered dive site temples face the moon.
Deep-sea fishermen have confirmed a circular formation of rocks jutting out from the surface of the sea just off Gozo, another island in the Maltese archipelago. Excavations have not taken place on many of these sites, and they are still just considered dive sites for tourists, and study locations for archaeologists. Once they actually start excavating the underwater temples it would be extremely interesting to watch because of Malta’s rich history and what has gone before.
Naturally these sites have many people asking many questions about them and one of the most popular questions centres around the possibility that Malta’s underwater temples could the Lost City of Atlantis. There is so much room for speculation, and so much fun to be had at Malta dive sites.
Vida Denning is a freelance writer who has quite enjoyed Malta holidays at Mellieha Bay Hotel. She doesn’t dive thanks to ear issues, so she visits the temples on land.