Heritage Malta is marking European Archaeology Days – which are held in the 47 member countries of the Council of Europe – with three interesting events bet­ween Friday and Monday (June 18 to 21).

There will be guided tours to celebrate the summer solstice, informal question and answer sessions with a senior curator  and a special opening of St Augustine’s Catacombs.

The summer solstice at Mnajdra.

The summer solstice guided tours will take place at sunrise at Mnajdra and Ħaġar Qim. Tours at Mnajdra will be held on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, while tours at Ħaġar Qim will be on Sunday and Monday. Both sets of tours will enable visitors to watch the annual spectacle of the first rays of the rising sun heralding the start of a new summer.

Ticket holders are to meet at 5.30am outside the Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra Visitor Centre. The informal question and answer sessions will be held on Friday at the National Museum of Archaeology.

During these sessions, entitled ‘Ask the Curator’, senior curator Sharon Sultana will answer any questions posed by participants as they view select artefacts from the Maltese Neolithic period and visit the intriguing Alien Headaches exhibition displaying the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum skulls. There will be two sessions – one in Maltese at 10am and another in English at 2pm.

The special opening of the St Augustine’s Catacombs will be on Sunday. These catacombs, just a stone’s throw away from the St Paul’s Catacombs in Rabat, are a group of small, interconnected hypogea, each with its own distinct features.

There will be two tours of the cata­combs – one in Maltese at 10am and another in English at noon.

Tickets for the European Archaeo­lo­gy Days events may be purchased from all Heritage Malta sites and museums and from the Heritage Malta website www.heritagemalta.org. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the number of tickets available for each event is very limited and pre-booking is essential. All attendees must wear a face mask and respect social distancing measures.