Tas-Silġ

Tas-Silġ is a rounded hilltop overlooking Marsaxlokk Bay, Malta, close to the city of Żejtun. Tas-Silġ is a multi-period sanctuary site covering all eras from Neolithic to the fourth century AD, and due to this it indicates to archaeologists several different layers of excavation. The site takes its name from the nearby Church of Our Lady of the Snows (Maltese: Knisja tal-Madonna tas-Silġ).

Megalithic Temple and Bronze Age settlement

The area was first inhabited when a temple was built in the Tarxien phase of Maltese prehistory, sometime around 3000 to 2500 BC. Few remains from the original temple can be seen, but the scatter of megaliths over the hill suggests that there was a large complex with at least 3 temples and possibly a village surrounding it. A D-shaped setting of large blocks that was part of the four-apsed temple still exists as it was later incorporated into the other buildings on the site. In the Bronze Age, the temple was probably converted into a settlement, as had been done in other sites such as Borġ in-Nadur.