AFRICA, MALTA, ETC. 



belling of the apse is just perceptible in PI. III. 

 Whether the roofing of the Mnaidra temple was 

 ever complete it is impossible to say : in any case 

 the system we have described could only be applied 

 to the apsidal portions of the areas, and their 

 centres must either have been open to the sky 

 or roofed quite simply with slabs. 



In the still more famous temple, of Hagiar Kim 

 we have a complicated building, in which the 

 original plan has been much altered and enlarged. 

 The main portion doubtless consisted originally 

 of a curved facade and a pair of elliptical areas, 

 the inner of which has been fitted with a second 

 entrance to the north-west and completely re- 

 modelled at its south-west end. Four elliptical 

 chambers, one of which is at a much higher level 

 than the rest of the building, have been added. 

 Here, too, as at Mnaidra, we find niches containing 

 trilithon tables. In the first elliptical area, in which 

 the apsidal ends are divided from the central space 

 by means of walls of vertical slabs, a remarkable 

 group of objects was found. In front of a well-cut 

 vertical block stood what must be an altar, cut 

 in one piece of stone. It is square in section 

 except for the top, which is circular. On the four 

 vertical edges are pilasters in relief, and in the 

 front between these is cut in relief what looks 

 like a plant growing out of a pot or box. To the 

 left of the altar and the vertical slab behind were 



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