Reference is made to Dr Colin James Hamer’s letter (TMID 2 April). The megalithic temples of Hagar Qim and Mnajdra have two separate entrances and as such are considered as two separate sites. In fact, Heritage Malta has separate statistics for the two sites as these are situated half a kilometre apart.

Patrons wishing to visit the two sites have the option of buying a multi-site ticket at a discounted price. However, given that senior citizens qualify for a 50 per cent discount on the normal adult admission fee, it works out cheaper for them to buy two separate tickets to visit Hagar Qim and Mnajdra.

As regards Dr Hamer’s claim that since 1994 some parts have either been cordoned off or covered with wooden planking, Heritage Malta would like to point out that such measures were taken for conservation and preservation purposes. The wooden planking mentioned by Dr Hamer is actually as a walkway which renders the site more accessible to visitors. For the record, more than 130,000 people visited Hagar Qim Temples between October 2003 and September 2004.

With regard to the legend on the tickets Dr Hamer bought from the Front Office of Hagar Qim, a simple explanation should suffice. Heritage Malta has introduced a new computerised ticketing system in all its sites except Hagar Qim and Mnajdra due to technical problems, given the locality of these UNESCO World Heritage Sites. To this effect, tickets sold at these two sites are originally printed in bulk at head office and then sold from site.

Heritage Malta is pleased to announce that as from last Monday, the computerised ticketing system was introduced at the Hagar Qim Temples and therefore, any tickets bought from the site will now no longer bear the label “Issued at Head Office” but should carry the exact date and time of purchase.

Pierre Cassar

Manager of public programmes

Heritage Malta