Stones of the Gods

Numerous articles and features written by Victor Paul Borg, author of the Malta Guide in the Lonely Planet series, can be accessed on his website here. It also includes his travel writing, essays and fiction. In this piece he discusses the enchanting attributes of the Neolithic temples. From Stones of the Gods:

These days there is no rest for Malta's Neolithic temples. An increasing number of pilgrims - hundreds if not thousands - travel halfway across the globe to experience the orbit of energy in the temples. Linda C Eneix, a tour operator for American pilgrims, said: "I get a real buzz in the temples. I have to get quiet first, then it's like all the molecules in my body start moving faster and something goes zipping up and down and all around." Danica Anderson, an American psychotherapist, recounted, "When we chanted in the Hypogeum, the voices accentuated the energy and the sound moved through our bodies. In Ggantija I felt as though I was pregnant..

What is sure is that Malta's Neolithic Culture has sprung some deep puzzles and mysteries. Malta, one half the size of London, has more major Neolithic shrines than the rest of Europe combined - twenty three major temples and two underground burial shrines: the oldest built structures in the world, pre-dating the Egyptian pyramids by 1,000 years...

What does the German artist Ebba von Fersen Balzan expect to paint anew after eleven years painting the temples? "I feel the energy in the temples tremendously," she said, "and I try to express their secret, sacred spaces." Her paintings are bold brushstrokes of reds, purples, dirty browns, blacks, but she tenderly expresses the curvaceous qualities, the megaliths overlapping one another like folds leading deeper into some living organ. There is no pattern, just a sense of marching drama and mystery. Even the skies are red..

Later, inspecting Balzan's paintings, I recognized the same elements that imprint her temple paintings. "Why is red so prevalent?" "Red is a vibrant colour," she explained. "But red somehow feels natural in the temples. It's like I felt that the colour of the temples should be red, and recently, to my surprise, I read that the temples' interior was in fact red." It's these little, intuitive mysteries, coupled with our sense of wonder and our tireless search for spiritual bearings, what makes the temples so infectious. Balzan's early temple paintings redefined her inner landscape and her art, and set her path. She said: "I can't stop working on the temples. I'm hooked."


Sacred Sights - Four artists living in Malta. Originally from Sri Lanka, England, Germany and South Africa working and exhibiting together for many years concentrating mostly on Malta's Neolithic temples