Għar Dalam

Archaeological Site

Archaeological Site · Marsaxlokk, Malta 35.8364°N 14.5280°E

Why you should go

Ninety seconds on Għar Dalam

Time needed

Up to an hourMuseum and cave together

Cost

TicketedCombo with Borġ in-Nadur

Effort

50 steps downPaved path, about 150 m

Access

Not step-freeAccessible WC, parking

Opening hours

What are the opening hours of Għar Dalam?

Heritage Malta's Opening Hours page lists the current days and times, and the site answers the phone on 21657419. All Heritage Malta sites close on 1 January, Good Friday, and 24, 25 and 31 December, and last admission is 30 minutes before closing time.

Tickets

How much are tickets for Għar Dalam?

Entry is ticketed by Heritage Malta, with reduced rates for youths, seniors, students and children aged 6 to 11. Infants aged 1 to 5, Heritage Malta members and Heritage Malta Passport holders enter free. Heritage Malta publishes the current rates and a Book now option on its website.

Bus

Which bus goes to Għar Dalam?

Malta travel guides name route 82, which stops at Dalam, a short walk from the entrance. The address to give a journey planner is Għar Dalam Road, Birżebbuġa.

Into the cave

How far into the Għar Dalam cave can you walk?

About 50 metres. The cave runs 144 metres into the rock, but only the first 50 metres are open to the public, which keeps the cave part of a visit short.

Children

Is Għar Dalam good for children?

The site has a nappy changing facility, food and drinks, indoor and outdoor seating, and lockers for bags. Inside the cave, keep small children by the hand.

Audio guides

Are there audio guides at Għar Dalam?

Yes. Heritage Malta lists audio guides among the facilities on site, in ten languages: Maltese, English, German, Italian, Greek, Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese and Polish.

Inside a cave in Birżebbuġa you can walk where Malta's Ice Age animals were found, then see their bones, dwarf elephants and hippos among them, in the museum beside it.

What makes it special

Għar Dalam is a cave whose floor deposits hold the bones of animals that roamed Malta in the Ice Age. Dwarf elephants, hippos, red deer and giant swans are among the species found there, from a time before any human habitation.

The earliest of those bones were deposited more than 160,000 years ago, and excavations in the cave turned up an extensive amount of them, now the core of the museum display.

In the topmost deposit, called the Cultural layer, pottery left by early Neolithic settlers is the earliest evidence of human settlement in Malta, some 7,400 years ago.

The site gave its name to the Għar Dalam phase, the earliest phase of Maltese prehistory.

Visiting

Two parts make up the visit, the museum hall and then the cave. In the Joseph Baldacchino Hall, rows of animal bones from the cave are laid out in one of a handful of Victorian-style displays left in Europe.

Take your time over the way the finds are arranged as well as the finds themselves.

From the museum, a paved path leads down through the grounds to the cave entrance. Along the walkway inside, fossil bones are still visible in the cave, before you climb back up to the museum.

Tips

For a day in the south, Marsaxlokk village is about 2.5 km away, a walk of 30 to 35 minutes. Għar Dalam is an easy stop to add to St Peter's Pool and the Darmanin Salt Pans.

Up the hill, the Bronze Age defensive walls of Borġ in-Nadur make a second stop.

Know before you goInside the cave the ceiling is low and the ground is slippery. Watch your footing and your head.