Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni

The Hypogeum takes its name from the locality in Paola beneath which it lies, Ħal Saflieni, a village that no longer exists. Ħal means village and saflieni means low, and because both words are of Berber origin the name may only have come into use after Muslims reached Malta. Themistocles Zammit, who would later excavate the site, judged the village name a misnomer on the grounds that the locality sits on top of a hill; against that, Ħal Saflieni does lie lower than Ħal Fuqani, the high village between Tarxien and Luqa. The word hypogeum is itself Greek and means simply underground.

The structure was found by accident in 1902, when workmen cutting cisterns for a new housing development broke through its roof. The workmen tried to hide it at first, but it was eventually found.

The first study of the structure was made by Manuel Magri, who directed excavations on behalf of the Museums Committee from November 1903. During those excavations a portion of the contents, grave goods and human remains among them, was emptied out and discarded without being properly catalogued. Magri died in 1907 while doing missionary work in Tunisia, which complicated matters further, and his report on the Hypogeum was lost.

Excavation passed to Sir Themistocles Zammit, who attempted to salvage what he could. The main difference in his seasons was that, instead of discarding the material, he deposited it and his other finds at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta. He began publishing a series of reports in 1910 and continued excavating until 1911.

Visitors were admitted from 1908, while the excavations were still under way. Queen Mary and Sir Leslie Rundle came in 1912. The four contemporary houses standing on the site of the Hypogeum were later demolished so that a museum could be built there.

The Hypogeum is cut entirely below ground, on three superimposed levels hewn into soft globigerina limestone and linked by a labyrinth of steps, lintels and doorways. The upper level is thought to have been occupied first, with the middle and lower levels expanded and excavated later; the rock cut from the second level was hoisted to the surface by Cyclopean rigging. The whole may have begun as a natural cave, enlarged over time by cutting directly into the rock with crude tools of antler, flint, chert and obsidian. The structure is assigned to the Saflieni phase of Maltese prehistory, 3300 to 3000 BC. The mortuary chambers of the upper level belong to the early phases of the Maltese Temple Period and those below were cut later; analysis of pottery samples and examination of the human remains suggest the site may have been in use as early as 4000 BC, and was likely in use until around 2500 BC.

Later archaeological work indicates that a surface shrine once marked the entrance, and its destruction is thought to have shielded the chambers below from discovery for thousands of years; nothing now remains of any enclosure that would have marked the way in. Light from the surface was carefully directed down into the lower chambers. Parts of the ceiling carry patterns painted in red ochre, following motifs of spots, spirals and honeycombs. The chamber called the Holy of Holies appears to be oriented so that light at the winter solstice fell on its facade from the original opening above, and no bones were recovered from it during the excavations. A resonance niche cut into the middle level, in the room known as the Oracle Room, was possibly designed to project chanting or drumming through the rest of the structure. The lowest storey yielded no bones and no offerings at all.

The Hypogeum is thought to have served as both a sanctuary and a necropolis. A broad range of objects came out of it, among them decorated pottery vessels, beads, shell buttons, amulets, axe-heads and carved figures of humans and animals, with the major themes taken to be the veneration of the dead and spiritual transformation. The best known of them is the Sleeping Lady, a clay figure recovered from the Main Chamber and thought to represent a mother goddess. The remains of an estimated 7,000 individuals were found in the chambers. Many of the bones were lost early in the excavation, though most of the skulls were deposited at the National Museum; a small percentage of those skulls show an abnormal cranial elongation similar to priestly skulls from Ancient Egypt, which has fuelled speculation about the people who used the Hypogeum and about their practices and beliefs.

The Hypogeum was designated a World Heritage Site in 1980 under criterion (iii), which covers unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or a civilisation either living or vanished. It carries a Class A heritage designation and covers some 500 square metres, and it is held to be the only known European example of an underground labyrinth of the period between 4000 and 2500 BC.

Further excavations were carried out between 1990 and 1993 by Anthony Pace, Nathaniel Cutajar and Reuben Grima. The site then closed to visitors from 1991 until 2000 for restoration works and to arrange it for visits. Since it reopened, Heritage Malta, the government body that looks after the islands' historic sites, has admitted only 80 people a day, and the microclimate underground is strictly regulated. A more intensive programme to monitor the decay of the site was launched in 2011, and scientific research on the Hypogeum continues: in 2014 an international team of scientists visited to study its acoustics.

The site closed again for a conservation project and a new environmental management system, in September 2016 by one account and as early as August 2015 by another. The works cost €1.1 million and were financed in part by a grant from Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. The renovated museum includes a new climate control system for the Hypogeum and an expanded visitor centre. The Maltese Minister for Culture inaugurated the renovated museum on 28 April 2017, and the Hypogeum reopened to visitors on 15 May 2017. In 2022 it appeared on the obverse of a commemorative two euro coin struck as part of the Maltese Prehistoric Sites series.