Għar Dalam Cave — Attraction in Birzebbugia

Għar Dalam Cave & Museum Location: Birżebbuġa, Malta Significance: One of Malta’s oldest prehistoric sites, providing evidence of the island’s earliest inhabitants and extinct Ice Age animals.

What’s Inside Għar Dalam Cave? Ancient Animal Bones The cave contains fossilized remains of dwarf elephants, hippos, deer, and other animals that lived in Malta over 250,000 years ago, when it was connected to mainland Europe. These species became dwarfized due to island isolation.

Evidence of First Human Settlement (7,400+ years ago) The deepest layers reveal Neolithic human remains and tools, proving Malta was inhabited around 5200 BCE. Pottery fragments and stone tools from these early settlers are displayed in the onsite museum.

Stratified Layers of History The cave’s soil layers show different eras: Upper Layer: Human artifacts (Neolithic period) Middle Layer: Deer bones (last Ice Age) Deepest Layer: Dwarf elephant & hippopotamus fossils (Pleistocene era)

Museum Exhibits Displays of fossils, including: Teeth and bones of extinct dwarf elephants (Elephas falconeri) Skulls of prehistoric deer (Cervus spp.) Neolithic human tools and pottery

The Cave’s Structure A 144meterlong tunnel (only the first 50m are open to visitors). The name "Għar Dalam" means "Cave of Darkness" in Maltese.

Visiting Information Opening Hours: Typically 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (check Heritage Malta for updates). Entry Fee: Around €5 for adults (discounts for students/seniors). Good to Know: The cave is cool and damp; wear...

Loved the space. You could see the bone remains still and we had a great experience! Exhibition centre gives a huge idea about the immense bone deposits recovered from this location!

It was not busy and tickets were bought on site without any queue!

There is much more to see in that compound than the cave itself, but with time restrictions we stuck only to the cave exploration.

There is parking facility close by and you could buy souvenir from their shop. It's a well maintained facility with all the basic amenities included for the visitors!

*Please read the information to know the significance and history of this cave. It is not a massive cave and you get access only to a certain distance. If you don't know the story behind this cave, then it could be a disappointing cave experience as it's not a...

Ghar Dalam Cave is a highly important site as it was here that the earliest evidence of human settlement on Malta, some 7,400 years ago, was discovered.

The display area consists of two parts: the cave and the museum, which exhibits a remarkable wealth of finds from animal bones to human artefacts. An overlaying river running at right angles formed the cave. It is some 144 metres deep, but only the first fifty metres are open to visitors. The lowermost layers, more than 500,000 years old, contained the fossil bones of dwarf elephants, hippopotami, micro-mammals and birds. Above the pebble layer that follows is the so-called ‘deer’ layer, dated to around 18,000 years ago. The top layer dates to less than 10,000 years and holds evidence of the first humans...