Għar Dalam Cave and Museum

Malta’s oldest prehistoric site of Għar Dalam engages visitors to take a journey to a time before human habitation, when animals such as elephants, hippopotami, and red deer roamed the pristine wilderness of the Ice Age.

No such animals have lived on the Maltese Islands for thousands of years.
Rows of ancient animal bones, unearthed from Għar Dalam cave, are exhibited in the Joseph Baldacchino Hall, which still retains one of a handful of Victorian-style displays in Europe.

The George Zammit Maempel Hall presents the historical aspects of the cave in a more didactic manner, as well as detailed displays on the various species discovered in Malta’s Pleistocene (‘Ice Age’) deposits. Even more Pleistocene animal fossils are still visible inside the cave.

A series of archaeological excavations held in the cave in the latter half of the 19th century revealed an extensive amount of animal bones, the earliest of which were deposited over 160,000 years ago.
Due to the climatic fluctuations of the Ice Age, sea levels dropped in the Mediterranean, facilitating animal dispersal from Sicily to the Maltese Islands via land bridges.
Once sea levels rose again, these animals were effectively trapped on the islands and left to evolve in isolation.

Among the most famous finds are elephants, hippopotami, swans, deer, dormice and various carnivores such as bears, wolves and foxes which are now extinct from the islands.
Many of the fossils display a fascinating phenomenon of evolution called the ‘Island Rule’, whereby large herbivores grow smaller and small animals grow larger due to the special conditions of small islands.

In the topmost layer of the site (the ‘Cultural’ layer), Għar Dalam also holds evidence of early Neolithic humans, who brought the first domestic animals from Sicily to the islands during the succeeding Holocene era.
By this time, many of the Ice Age animals had already gone extinct, possibly due to climate change.

Besides being the ideal site to engage visitors with Malta’s archaeological and ecological history, Għar Dalam is also renowned for its current ecological value.
Indigenous flora is planted and maintained throughout its gardens, which are open for visitors to enjoy alongside stunning views of the Wied Dalam valley.
The site forms part of the Natura 2000 network of protected sites, which includes Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) of international importance and Special Protection Areas (SPA).
This conservation status is due to the cave also being home to a small population of endemic cave woodlouse, Armadillidium ghardalamensis, and a roosting site for the Lesser Horse-shoe Bat, Rhinolophus hipposideros.

FACILITIES AVAILABLE ON SITE

Audio Guides Languages: MT, EN, DE, IT, EL, ES, FR, CN/ZH, JA, PL	Food & Drinks	Gift Shop	Indoor / Outdoor Seating Area	Lockers

Nappy Changing Facility	Parking Bays