Għar Dalam Cave and Museum

Għar Dalam is a cave and museum in Birżebbuġa, in the south east of Malta, and it is the island's oldest prehistoric site. Visitors can walk into the cave where Ice Age animal bones were found, see them displayed in a Victorian style museum, and stroll through gardens planted with native flora above the Wied Dalam valley.

It is run by Heritage Malta, and it suits families, history lovers and anyone curious about a Malta that existed long before people lived here. For questions, use the VisitMalta.co.uk enquiry form on this page and we will pass your message on.

What you will see

The story begins before humans reached the islands, when elephants, hippopotami and red deer roamed a wild landscape. Rows of bones dug from the cave are shown in the Joseph Baldacchino Hall, which keeps one of a small number of Victorian style displays still found in Europe.

The George Zammit Maempel Hall explains the history of the cave in a more teaching led way, with detailed displays on the species found in Malta's Pleistocene, or Ice Age, deposits. More fossils can still be seen inside the cave itself.

Excavations in the second half of the nineteenth century uncovered a large quantity of bones, the oldest deposited over 160,000 years ago. The top layer of the site also holds evidence of early Neolithic people, who brought the first domestic animals from Sicily.

If this appeals, our museums in Malta directory lists other places to visit.

The Ice Age story

During the Ice Age, sea levels in the Mediterranean dropped, and land bridges let animals cross from Sicily to the Maltese islands. When the sea rose again, they were trapped and evolved in isolation. Famous finds include elephants, hippopotami, swans, deer, dormice and carnivores such as bears, wolves and foxes, all now extinct on the islands.

Many fossils show the Island Rule, in which large plant eaters grow smaller and small animals grow larger because of life on a small island. By the Neolithic period many of the Ice Age animals had already gone, possibly because of climate change.

Malta's temple age is just as impressive, and the Ħaġar Qim temples and the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum are good companions to this visit.

Gardens and wildlife

Għar Dalam is also valued for its ecology. Indigenous plants are grown and cared for throughout the gardens, which are open for visitors and look out over the Wied Dalam valley. The site belongs to the Natura 2000 network of protected sites, because the cave is home to a small population of an endemic cave woodlouse and a roost for the Lesser Horse-shoe Bat.

The south east is a good area to explore for a day, and the Blue Grotto is also in the south of the island.

Tickets, facilities and access

A combination ticket covers Għar Dalam and Borg in-Nadur. Adults (18+) pay €6.50, youths (12 to 17) €5.00, senior citizens (60+) €5.00, concessions and students €5.00 and children (6 to 11) €4.00. Infants (1 to 5) are free, and Heritage Malta members and passport holders enter free.

On site there are audio guides in ten languages, including English, a gift shop, food and drinks, indoor and outdoor seating, lockers, a nappy changing facility and parking bays. The site is autism friendly, with designated quiet spaces, and has accessible toilets and blue badge parking bays on a first come basis. Some areas cannot be fully reached by visitors with mobility impairments, and the children's room needs a child to be accompanied by an adult.

Plan your visit with our things to do in Malta and Malta weather guide, and use the VisitMalta.co.uk enquiry form on this page to ask a question, and we will pass your message to the site.