An Enchanted Place

ancient achievements erode

into myth, rendered obsolete

as the universe shifts, hands of

giants concealing facts whilst

revealing truths held within

edifices of crumbling stone

Word count: 24 + ‘obsolete’.

This post is actually for two different challenges – Cee’s Black and White Challenge and Sammi Scribble’s Weekend Word Prompt. 

This week’s theme for CB&W is anything with double letters. I visited the ancient site of the Ggantija Temples on the island of Gozoduring a holiday to Malta last year and thought that a few pictures from around the place would be perfect for the challenge. The theme for the WWP is ‘obsolete’, and this week allows 24 words, plus the word prompt.

The Ggantija Temples are a UNESCO World Heritage Site that date to around 3600 BC. They are one of the oldest free-standing megalithic structures in the world. They’re even older than the pyramids, though not quite as old as Göbleki Tepi in Turkey. Their name comes from the fact that they were formerly thought to have been built by giants. The story goes that a Gozitan giantess, who ate nothing but broad beans and honey, bore a child by one of the local common people. She then built the temples while carrying the child on her shoulders. From the statues and figurines found on the site, it is thought that the Temples were mainly used for fertility rites, though this usage did vary through their long history.

If you’d like to know more about the Ggantija Temples and the island of Gozo, then check out the post my Mum, historical author Millie Thom, wrote on her blog a few years ago. She’s currently putting the finishing touches to book four of her Sons of Kings series, but I’m sure she’ll be back on her blog before too long.

Hereare a few more pictures from around the Ggantija Temples: