People of Malta build some of the oldest existing free-standing structures in the world in the form of the megalithic Ġgantija temples on Gozo; other early temples include those at Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra.

The temples have distinctive architecture, typically a complex trefoil design, and are used from 4000 to 2500 BCE.

Animal bones and a knife found behind a removable altar stone suggest that temple rituals included animal sacrifice.

Tentative information suggests that the sacrifices were made to the goddess of fertility, whose statue is now in the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta.

The culture apparently disappears from the Maltese Islands around 2500 BCE.

Archaeologists speculate that the temple builders fell victim to famine or disease, but this is not certain.

Another archaeological feature of the Maltese Islands often attributed to these ancient builders is equidistant uniform grooves dubbed "cart tracks" or "cart ruts" which can be found in several locations throughout the islands, with the most prominent being those found in Misraħ Għar il-Kbir, which is informally known as "Clapham Junction".

These may have been caused by wooden-wheeled carts eroding soft limestone.

A new wave of immigration to Malta from Sicily beginning in about 4100 BCE is the foundation of the Zebbug and Mgarr phases, and eventually the Ggantija phase, of Maltese temple builders.

The two temples at Ggantija on the Maltese island of Gozo are notable for their gigantic Neolithic structures.

They are the world's oldest freestanding structures, and the world's oldest religious structures, predating the Pyramids of Egypt and Stonehenge.

The temples, each constructed as a series of semicircular apses connected with a hall in the centers, are possibly the sites of an Earth Mother Goddess Fertility Cult, with numerous figurines and statues found on site that archaeologists believe are connected with that cult.

The temples are cloverleaf-shaped; built up with cyclopean facing stones and filled in with rubble.

Each is constructed as a series of semicircular apses connected with a hall in the center.

Archaeologists believe that masonry domes originally covered the apses.

The southern temple, the older and more extensive of the two, dates to approximately 3600 BCE.

Like other megalithic sites in Malta, the temple faces southeast.

It rises to a height of six meters.

At the entrance sits a large stone block with a recess that some archaeologists have hypothesized as a ritual ablution station for purification before entering the complex.

The five apses contain various altars; evidence of animal bones in the site suggests the site was used for animal sacrifice.

Carvings that decorate the site depict goats, sheep, and pigs of both sexes, possibly showing which animals were used by the sacrificial cult.

The structures are all the more impressive for having been constructed at a time when no metal tools were available to the natives of the Maltese islands, and when the wheel had not yet been introduced.

Small, spherical stones have been discovered; it is believed that these were used as ball bearings to transport the enormous stone blocks required for the temples' construction.

Malta’s Tarxien temples consist of three separate, but attached, temple structures featuring both solar and lunar alignments.

The first temple, which has been dated to approximately 3100 BCE, is the most elaborately decorated of the temples of Malta.

The middle temple dates to about 3000 BCE, and is unique in that, unlike the rest of the Maltese temples, it has three pairs of apses instead of the usual two.

The east temple is dated at around 3100 BCE.

The remains of another temple, smaller, and older, having been dated to 3250 BCE, are visible further towards the east.

Of particular interest at the temple site is the rich and intricate stonework, which includes depictions of domestic animals carved in relief, and altars and screens decorated with spiral designs and other patterns.

A chamber set into the thickness of the wall between the South and Central temples and containing a relief showing a bull and a sow demonstrates the skill of the builders.