The Ggantija Temples are offering an enhanced visitor experience thanks to a direct investment of €200,000 by the Vodafone Malta Foundation. The Vodafone Ggantija Project consisted of incorporating two new lightweight walkways, which will now take visitors straight into the heart of the temples. The project also includes an interactive digital and virtual tour of Ggantija. The Temples have also been decked out with an environmental monitoring station, which measures exposure to environmental elements, and the site has been made safer with the installation of a remote security system. The number of visitors to Ggantija in 2010 reached 142,483 and in the first four months of 2011 Ggantija had the highest visitor numbers for all Heritage Malta sites, amounting to 44,436.

While highlighting the importance of this unique heritage site that represents one of the main historical attractions of the island of Gozo, Acting Prime Minister and Minister for Gozo, Giovanna Debono, explained that the Vodafone Ggantija Project will continue to strengthen government’s endeavours to restore and conserve Gozo’s rich cultural heritage. Another project which the Ministry for Gozo intends to implement through the ERDF programme relates to a conservation plan and the founding of the Ggantija Archaeological Park that will include an equipped Visitors’ Centre allowing for a collection of prehistoric remains to be permanently exhibited close to where such remains were found.

Parliamentary Secretary Mario Demarco said that our heritage is so important that it places on each and every one of us a responsibility towards present and future generations. “This is a responsibility which not only the public sector through Heritage Malta is committed to, but we are today witnessing the private sector’s commitment towards our heritage. Thanks to the Vodafone Foundations’ corporate social responsibility, we are today witnessing the realisation of a project, which is to benefit Gozo’s heritage. This demonstrates that public-private partnership can be effective, and that the private sector is committed to contribute towards the restoration, maintenance and embellishment of our cultural heritage.” He further stated that a number of Heritage Malta’s projects are also being realised thanks to EU capital funds.

Heritage Malta has been reaching out for active synergies with various entities to help in the continuous effort of supervising, preserving, understanding better and ultimately marketing Malta’s historic sites. The Vodafone Malta Foundation has been a collaborator for a number of years, allocating funds for the conservation of heritage sites and other ventures.

Balesh Sharma, CEO of Vodafone Malta said: “We understand that the preservation of historic sites such as Ggantija is extremely costly. Vodafone is proud to be a main contributor to Maltese heritage and through our Foundation we make efforts to contribute back to the community we operate in. We want to make sure that the Maltese and Gozitans benefit from our commercial presence here.” Since its very beginning the Foundation has donated more than €2 million to local causes across Malta and Gozo.

Isabelle Vella, vice-chairman of Heritage Malta thanked the Vodafone Malta Foundation for its constant support and backing throughout the years while Martin Gregory on behalf of the Vodafone Malta Foundation said that this project is one of the most significant investments the Vodafone Malta Foundation has done to date.

The Ggantija temples were erected around 3500BC and are reputed to be among the very first free standing structures in the world. It has survived extraordinary well, its walls in places still standing to a height of 7 metres. There are two adjacent temples, the southern one on the left having had part of its wall removed to allow the northern one to be built up against it.