that something had changed. As I looked
around me I noticed that I was all alone in
the temple. To my astonishment the
temples looked completely different; the
internal walls were now plastered and
painted red. There was also a number of
statuettes and other objects scattered
around the temple. One of the figures was holding a blazing
torch in his hand and was approaching the
altar. I could hear the pathetic bleating of
the poor lamb and just as the torch
touched the altar I screamed ‘STOP’ and
threw the glowing stone at the figure with
the torch. Obviously I missed my target
and the stone went straight onto the altar.
Suddenly I became aware of chanting
coming from the smaller temple.
Apprehensively I peeked behind the wall
separating the two temples and saw
around a dozen people all clad in black
standing around one of the altars. On the
altar I could make out the shape of a little
lamb which was trying in vain to escape.
Sudden realisation hit me! I had travelled
in time and these people were offering the
lamb as a sacrifice to their Gods. I had
travelled over 5000 years back in time
when the pyramids of Egypt and
Stonehenge had not yet been built! As soon as it hit the altar, the stone
exploded into a thousand pieces and again
I was left blinded for a few seconds. When
I opened my eyes, to my utmost relief, I
could see my teacher and classmates
gathered all around me, staring at me.
Apparently they had heard my scream but
had not even noticed my absence. But had
I gone somewhere during those few
minutes or had it all been a figment of my
imagination?
Up to this day I still don’t know exactly
what had happened. Nevertheless this
incident made me appreciate the amazing
history of our tiny islands, especially that
of the Ġgantija Temples.
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