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Chap. XI.
MALTA.—GOZO, HAGIAR KHEM.
417

Bouverie when he was governor, some time before or about 1836, when a careful plan and drawings of the whole were published by Count de la Marmora.[1] It has been re-engraved by Gailhabaud and others, and is well known to archæologists.

The monuments thus brought to light consisted of two pairs of elliptical chambers very similar in dimensions and plan to those at Mnaidra (woodcut No. 179). The greatest depth internally from the entrance to the apse of the principal pair is 90 feet; the greatest width across both 130 feet. The right-hand pair as you enter is comparatively plain. The outer chamber of the left-hand pair still retained, when excavated, fittings that looked like an altar in the right-hand apse, which was separated from the rest by what may be called the choir-screen or altar-rail; and this was ornamented with spirals and geometric figures neatly and sharply cut. In the inner chamber was a stone, near the entrance, on which was a bas-relief of a serpent, but no other representation of any thing living was found elsewhere.

Rude Stone Monuments 0443.png

178.
View of the exterior of the Giants' Tower at Gozo. From a drawing in the possession of Sir Bartle Frere, K.C.B.

The external appearance of the monument may be gathered


  1. 'Nouvelles Annales de l'Institut archéologique,' i.; Paris, 1836.