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About Hypogeum


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First Level

The first level is very similar to tombs found in Xemxija in Malta. Some rooms are natural caves which were later artificially extended. The second level was only opened when the original builders found that this level was no longer adequate. This level is only ten metres below the street level.

Second Level

Hal Saflieni

The Sleeping Lady, Museum of Archaeology, Valletta, Malta

This level features several apparently important rooms, such as the Main Room, the Holy of Holies, and the Oracle Room.

The Main Chamber

This chamber is roughly circular and carved out from rock. A number of trilithon entrances are represented, some blind, and others leading to another chamber. Most of the wall surface has received a red wash of ochre. It was from this room that the statuettes of the sleeping lady were recovered. Nowadays these figurines are held in the Museum of Archaeology, in Valletta, Malta.

The Oracle Room

The Oracle Room is roughly rectangular and one of the smallest side chambers has the peculiarity of producing a powerful acoustic resonance from any vocalization made inside it. This room has an elaborately painted ceiling, consisting of spirals in red ochre with circular blobs.

The Decorated Room

Out of the Oracle's Room, through the hammer dressed chamber, on the right is another spacious hall, circular, with inward slanting smooth walls, richly decorated in a geometrical pattern. On the right side wall the entrance is a petrosomatoglyph of a human hand carved into the rock (Agius).

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