Photo. It was strange walking in these parallel poles at Clapham Junction near Busket Gardens, near the Dingli Cliffs. © Travel Explorations.
They look like rail road lines, which have been carved out from soft limestone rocks. The tracks were made for over 5000 years ago. Up to this day the cart ruts have remained an unsolved enigma to all scientists who tried to explain their purpose and function.
Several hypotheses have been suggested, but no completely theory has been made and common accepted. All theories are based on assumptions and limited evidence. By observing and walking in these criss cross of parallel grooves, it gave me a hard puzzle to solve.
The cart ruts are from Malta`s prehistoric period. The are found throughout the islands. In April and May this year (2006) I had the great pleasure to admire the cart ruts in the sunset. By watching them in real made me even more confused., and all information I have carefully studied didn`t give me convincing answers either. It was fascinating, but at the same time very mysterious. Of course I like to understand why these tracks where made. In the coming articles I will explain more about the cart ruts.
It was annonced in October 2004 that some new light would be sheded on the mysterious cart ruts found all over Malta. A scientific research was establish find out more about these myseries tracks cut into rocks: why, when and how where these enigmatic routes used. Heritage Malta was appointed as the Project Leader in the Culture 2000 project entitled "The significance of cart-ruts in ancient landscapes". This is the first time that Malta is a project leader in such a project.
During the launch of the project it was announced that there are two international partners involved: Faculty of Environmental Sciences University of Urbino Italy, and APROTECO: association for economic development of Valley of Lecrin, Granada Spain. Local partners are the National Museum of Archaeology, Restoration Unit, MEPA and the University of Malta. The project will cost 296,906 Euros, and 49 per cent of it was partly funded by the European Commission. What did they found out about the huge mystery?
The cart ruts of Ghar il-Kbir, at Clapham Junction, Rabat Malta covering an area of about 250,000 square metres and Camino des los Molinos, Padul, Granada Spain were chosen for the study. These two sites will be compared to each other in the study.
A technology developed by a team of Italian experts from the University of Urbino will be used to document the cart-ruts and the surrounding landscape found in the Malta and Spain.
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Photo. Stein Morten from the global travel guide Travel Explorations, enjoys his explorations of Malta`s many ancient wonders and mysteries.
Malta has many great things to offer adventure travellers. Even Malta consist of three small islands, it take a long time to explore all the amazing sites.
© Travel Explorations.
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Coming up with more reports from own explorations and other expeditions soon.
Stein Morten Lund, 5 May 2006
Additional information
In the coming weeks Travel Explorations will publish several articles in both English and Norwegian about Malta.
We will also go back for more explorations in Malta in the autumn 2006.
Tour operats who would like to offer their tours options are welcome to contacts us on e-mail: stein@travelexplorations.com
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