Borġ in-Nadur

Borġ in-Nadur Ruins today.

Sadly, it seems as if the Borġ in-Nadur temple complex will be the end of our Malta Megalithic Temple round ups on the blog. We've poured a lot of heart and soul into these Maltese posts and are sad to see them end for the time being. Hopefully a new archeological discovery will reignite some topics we've touched on so we can revisit this topic again soon!

Borġ in-Nadur is in ruins compared to many of the other Maltese temples from the prehistoric times. This is because it was abandoned sometime during the Neolithic and then used as scrap pieces by thje Bronze Age Maltese. The shape of the temples though was typical of all the Maltese temples. Borġ in-Nadur was built during the final temple building phase on Malta, the Tarxien Phase. So, the Prehistoric Maltese were pretty set in their ways on how to build temples by then. The Borġ in-Nadur would have overlooked the St. George's Bay in Southwestern Malta in its heyday. (I'm pretty sure that it wasn't named St. George's Bay back then though). What makes the Borġ in-Nadur temple drastically different than all the other temples on Malta is the lack of evidence for human activity. This is probably due to the Bronze Age settlement that came and used the temple's site for their own purposes, but it could have been the giantesses as well. Mystical things seem to happen at Borġ in-Nadur.

Angelik can't personally deliver his message.

In 2005, Angelik Caruana perceived visions of the Virgin Mary at the hilltop of Borġ in-Nadur. Angelik states that the Virgin Mary wished to be called 'Our Lady of Borġ in-Nadur' and extolled the Maltese towards a resurgence of prayer and the conversion to Catholicism for all the nations. Angelik's visions have been dismissed by the Archbishop of Malta. However this has not stopped Angelik from garnering a following. He continues to visit Borġ in-Nadur to receive visions and has actually gone over to the island of Gozo (one of the other populated islands of Malta). In one of his visions he Angelik reported that he got a personal message for Pope Benedict XVI. Angelik decided that he would visit the Vatican and climb over a barrier to deliver his message to the Pope personally. This resulted in him being escorted out of Vatican City.

Something about these megalithic temples in Malta gives them an air of spirituality. I hate that word very passionately. It's vague and overused, often improperly. People often describe any sort of quiet peace as spiritual. That seems to be a bit of a bastardization of the word. However, in the case of giant cathedrals or ancient temples and other ancient religious sites there seems to be a heritage of people seeking something beyond themselves. They are reaching for the spiritual and sometimes they attain it (other times they attain something they think is spiritual). It is this quest for the thing that completes us that is our spiritual journey. The ancient Maltese and the modern Maltese are connected through this straining for that which completed us. Angelik worships the Christian God and is incorporating both fundamental (not a bad word by the way as many have made it out to be) Catholic faith traditions, local customs and personal beliefs. The ancient Maltese that built it likely worshiped a pantheon of gods giving special primacy to a fertility goddess. But, both Angelik and the builders of the temple at Borġ in-Nadur were seeking the spiritual completion to their lives. One of the reasons why Angelik probably feels that special spiritual connection at Borġ in-Nadur is because there is something about that area that gives that aura of spirituality. If it didn't, the early Maltese probably wouldn't have built Borġ in-Nadur Temple there in the first place.