A site to preserve

Sunday, January 4 was a revelation to me. It started with the usual promise of a tranquil balmy day. The sun was shining, as you might remember, and the air had the feel of a crisp spring day.

I was invited to lunch by some dear friends who live in Xemxija. As it seemed such a waste to stay indoors we went for a walk. Not a long one, but memorable.

Within 10 minutes I found myself visiting one of the world's oldest and best restored aviaries.

For those who did not get the last sentence... one of the world's oldest and best restored aviaries. This was followed in rapid succession by a walk on a Roman road, an intimate view of a series of Troglodyte tombs, a Roman bath and the remains of a prehistoric temple.

On the way were meticulously rebuilt dry-stone walls. Numerous cairns highlighting important areas... Oh yes an abandoned car and around the temple a trapper's "field" as well as someone growing some vegetables inside the temple.

Inconceivable! Well to the outside world it would be inconceivable. In Malta it was, until recently, a development site!

A lot of readers will probably shrug their shoulders, maybe mutter "u ejja" and turn over to read about some minister guest speaking at the grand opening of some new building attempting to revive tourism.

I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up about the site over a cup of tea while watching Discovery channel.

There we were having walked around a site predating Stonehenge while listening to a professor from a university in America explaining to the presenter of the programme "...gee, how great it is for my students to come over each year to see for themselves a 700-year-old castle, it's stuff people only dream about".

The scene is almost laughable.

Most parts of the world cannot even imagine visiting a site such as the one I saw that Sunday. Most people here don't care less.

"U ejja, m'ghandniex flus" (Sorry, there's no money) is one reason given and, yet, St Paul's Bay local council and a small group of civic minded people who live in the area recently formed under the title of the St Paul's Bay Heritage Group, with no money to speak of, have enabled this site to be restored, preserved and maintained to a high standard.

"U ejja, as if it will help the economy, tourism we need, ahjar we build a complex there". Only this site has already attracted three groups of tourists who came specifically from various parts of the world to see this site. In Xemxija remember, not Valletta or the temples.

Of course, the owner of the abandoned car, the equally civic minded graffiti artists who insist on spraying "privat", to choose one of the less offensive words, and the delightful trapper and man growing his potatoes on a prehistoric temple site (good fengshui I guess) have all helped to give the site some modern local colour of which we are all proud.