As this was our last full day on Malta, we were determined to see as much as possible, so set off early to catch the bus to Rabat. There are only 2 buses an hour, and we arrived with plenty of time to spare, so of course the bus was more than 15 minutes late. However, there was plenty of space inside, so we had seats for the hour long journey. When we arrived in Rabat, we wasted quite some time wandering up and down before finding what we had gone to see, the Domus Romana (which was not well signposted from the point of view of pedestrians getting off the buses).
This is a Roman town house, which was discovered at the end of the 19th Century. The finds are housed in a small Museum at the site. There are some beautiful finds in it - not all from the site, some from other sites, and some from goodness knows where.
Archeology was not too precise at the end of the 19th Century. The mosaics from the site are said to rival those of Pompeii. They certainly were beautiful, though nothing like the size of those we saw in Sicily.
We then walked back into Rabat, whose narrow streets we found very picturesque
We paused for a coffee break in a delightful café we found quite by chance in a back alley. It was tiny, and we had to climb a very narrow spiral staircase to sit at one of about 6 tables on a balcony which overhung the interior of a shop. The kind lady inside directed us towards the Catacombs of St Paul's cathedral, which we then found without difficulty. The streets were so narrow we found it hard to believe we were indeed in a main street, but we were. The cathedral, when we found it, was shut. We wondered if churches were ever open in Malta; perhaps, as in Britain, there is a problem with theft and vandalism and they have to be kept locked to foil such crimes.
Anyway, we found the catacombs open, so we went there. The audio guide we were given referred to the catacombs as 'hypogea', and they were certainly dug out of the rock by Romans and early Christians, and some were cut out to imitate things found in the world above - not megaliths but tables at which meals could be taken. No flash photos could be taken in the main area, but there was a much smaller area to which we were directed first, and there seemed to be no such prohibition there.
This first photo shows the table, used perhaps for a funeral feast. This type of table apparently started as a Roman dining area, a triclinium, but in Malta the table and benches became fused together. There is also a rim round the table, which would seem to indicate it was used for liquid, and the break in the rim might have allowed the liquid to drain out into something.
The tombs themselves were of different types. The photo shows some through the small arch which were cut almost to resemble beds. Sometimes these small 'rooms' could contain a number of tombs and could be sealed off with a stone, like the one in the next photo.
It is carved to show surgeon's tools, indicating the profession of those buried behind it.
Other tombs could be cut like a sarcophagus, and closed with a stone lid, or even roof tiles. Some people, especially children, could be buried in niches cut in the wall.
After some time spent wandering about in the dark underground we were thoroughly chilled and very glad to emerge out again into the sunlight and make our way out of Rabat, across the bus terminus and into Mdina.
Mdina is tinier than I had imagined, in fact it has only 400 inhabitants. It is a walled city, surrounded once by a moat (currently being renovated) and with an imposing city gate. It dates from well before the times of the Knights of St John. It was originally built by the Romans, and reduced in size and re-fortified by the Arabs. When Aragon ruled Malta it became a medieval city, and has retained much of this medieval character. The main street runs more or less down the centre - after a left and then a right turn, but most of the streets built off it are narrow and angled. This was deliberate, to deflect arrows and make shooting difficult.
We went into the Cathedral Museum and then the Cathedral. We were really too tired to appreciate the museum by the time we got there. It houses medieval choir books, silver plate, and a very interesting coin collection spanning 2000 years, where we spent some time. There is also a collection of paintings which we hardly had the energy to examine, apart from some very fine Dürer engravings. Photographs are not allowed at all, but I snatched this of a particularly exquisite one.
The Cathedral is across the square from the museum, and had to be re-built after an earthquake in 1693. It is another fine Baroque building, and somewhat reminiscent of the Cathedral in Valletta inside, though considerably less grand and less decorated. It also has a floor made of decorated marble tombstones, but these ones can be walked on and photographed. Not too many are adorned with the skulls and skeletons of the ones in Valletta cathedral, but I managed to find one!
We were too tired by then to do a lot more. We wandered the streets to the far end of the town, pausing to admire the view over central Malta and the huge sweep of the landscape. We also wandered into a few shops selling Mdina glass, but were too tired to buy anything. Eventually we accepted the fact that it was time to go back, and caught a bus for the long journey back to Sliema - over an hour this time, because of heavy traffic. This meant that there was no trip to Valletta today to use the Wi-Fi in McDonalds, so I'm not sure when this and last night's one can be posted - not tonight anyway. And tomorrow we set off back home.
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