Malta, he mused, was the site of a strange civilization whose ruins predated Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid of Egypt by over a thousand years.  He recalled that the temples in Ggantija were the oldest freestanding monuments in the world.  Steeped in goddess worship, the islands were a center of mystical practices and were known collectively as a “Sacred Island” of the Mediterranean world.  He wondered if the temples and megaliths were a product of Atlantean influence, and the Goddess but another name for Eve.  He remembered many of the theories regarding the great stone works.  To some, the monuments marked the constellations.  To others, the ideas ranged from being boundary markers or celestial calendars, to sites of worship and beacons to an alien race.  But to Andrew, the ruins seemed to be obvious places of worship, meditation, and contemplation, though the giant stones remained an enigma.  He thought that perhaps they were placed around the globe as some kind of spiritual reminder that all one saw was not as it appeared.  Maybe they were placed as a great mystery to keep people focused on the mysterious.  Either way, their presence had forced many to raise mystical questions about life in general, and to that end, the stones’ mere existence had served a profound purpose.  Valletta is a port city located in Malta, an island south of the boot of Italy, in the Mediterranean Sea. The Stone Temples of Ggantija Hagar Qim