Malta - Clapham Junction & Mdina

 It was our final day on Malta, and yet again I was asking the question, where did that time go? There's no way our week here could be already coming to an end. There must have been a mistake!

I pondered the issues with time vanishimg whilst on holiday, while on the bus to Clapham Junction, the largest collection of cart ruts in Malta, named so because to one explorer, it reminded him of the train tracks in London, just by Clapham Junction. Clapham Junction is one of the busiest train stations in Europe, with over two thousand trains passing through each day, so it's understandable there is a lot of tracks that cross cross each other. And thats the same here for the cart ruts. 

It's a mystery quite how and when the cart ruts were made, and in fact very little is known about them. Theories include that they are paths from where carts being used to transport stone overtime have caused the grooves, other's think they are a form of drainage. Whatever they were used for, there's no denying that they are fascinating. They are most clear in these two pictures, but we saw loads of them dotted around the site. They all seem to go in different directions too, they all head downhill, but in a multitude of different ways. They criss cross over each other, and you can get lost trying to follow them.

While we were exploring the site, we followed these much wider ones for a bit and came across these caves, which we dutifully explored.

There were plenty of little cut out areas, possibly for burials, but also larger area's that would have perhaps been used as living spaces. What was really cool, was that we were the only people there. We didnt see another soul, until we walked past the quarry, and even then only saw someone in a digger.

Annoyingly, you only get a true sense of the size of the site of cart ruts from above. I didnt have the funds to hire a helicopter to have a look, but by having a look on Google maps, you can really see the extent of the cart ruts, as well as some of the local caves and landscape features too. If anyone has seen any good drone videos over the cart ruts, please do send me a link for them, I find them fascinating.

We then caught the bus to Mdina (Or Rabat, as it also appears on map and directions. I'm not 100% sure, but I think it is two settlements that grew until they joined together) where we discovered a fun city with a lot of things to see and do. We started off by visiting the Roman Villa (Domus Romana), adult tickets were six euros, and got you entrance to the Villa, which also had a little museum with this brilliant collection of Roman Glass. My mind boggles over the fact that glass that is 2,000 years old is still not just only in one piece, but as good as the day it was made.

Some of the brilliantly coloured plaster work.

One of the restored mosaics, and below one that is as it was found.

You can also wander around the remains of the villa outside, and interestingly, apparently much of the side of the villa was destroyed when the British built a railway line to Mdina (Rabat). Typical of the bloody British!

Mdina had this wonderful feeling of being lost in time, it was a very charming place. Here's where we made a mistake. We'd spent quite a while walking around and exploring Clapham Junction and the cart ruts, and the busses from there weren't too frequent, so we were a little short on time. Once we got to Mdina, we did the Roman Villa because that was the must visit place for us, then settled ourselves down for some lunch. Lunch ended up taking longer than we thought due to many menu choices and the fact we were sat people watching. Isn't it fantastic what you see when you just sit and watch life go by!

It then meant that we only had time to do one more thing, so we decided to visit St Pauls catacombs. I'd read about them online, and figured that would be an ideal last activity here on Malta, looking at former graves and burial chambers. Everyone at work thought it was crazy, but there you go, we like to do something a little different. Entry was 6 euros, and there was loads of different catacombs for you to visit. What made it really interesting, was there was a board outside the entrance to each catacomb that told you where to look for particular details, what artefacts were found inside, as well as little bits of added history. It was so so interesting, and a must see if you're going to be visiting Malta.

Some of the catacombs like this one were quite large, enough room to stand in, and with multiple burials in the walls, whereas others were very low and you almost had to crouch to get in them. This one below you can see the chisel marks in the walls by the ceiling.

And this one was so interesting, with the arches around the burial space.

Some of the tombs had details you would have easily missed if it wasn't for the helpful panels at the entrances. This one had what looked like painted flowers on, while the one before had a boat and a Greek name by it, possibly the grave of a fisherman.

Not all of the burials were Christian, despite the name being St Pauls, on this particular burial, you can see a Menorah above where the persons head would have been laid to rest. Proof indeed that different faiths buried thier loves ones together in these catacombs.

It was an interesting but slightly morbid end to our visit to Malta, although I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. The week had gone so fast, yet we had seen and done so many things, I can see why people return to Malta again and again. What a beautiful place, and with so much history & culture. I simply cannot wait to come back again and see even more. Thank you for having us Malta, we will be back to see you soon!