{"id":249412,"date":"2025-11-28T11:21:59","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/heritagemalta.mt\/?post_type=events&#038;p=249412"},"modified":"2025-12-18T10:01:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T09:01:32","slug":"winter-solstice-mnajdra-2","status":"publish","type":"events","link":"https:\/\/heritagemalta.mt\/whats-on\/winter-solstice-mnajdra-2\/","title":{"rendered":"(FULLY BOOKED) Winter solstice \u2013 Mnajdra"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Heritage Malta invites you to welcome the winter season with a difference, at one of its most picturesque sites &#8211; <strong>Mnajdra<\/strong>.<\/p><p>Join us early in the morning of<strong> Saturday 20th or Sunday 21st December to watch the sunrise from this unique Neolithic megalithic site<\/strong>. On this shortest day of the year, see how the south structure of the site, built during the 4th&nbsp;and 3rd&nbsp;millennia BC, was expertly configured to have the first rays of the sun mark the first day of each season.<\/p><p>During sunrise, visitors will have the opportunity to experience the sun\u2019s rays illuminating the very edge of a decorated megalith found to the right of the passage connecting the first pair of chambers to the inner chambers.<\/p><p>The community of the Neolithic period was an agricultural one, for whom the marking of the changing seasons was crucial. Without official calendars, such alignments might have been an effective way to mark the changing seasons. Being that most probably these megalithic structures were very important to the community, one cannot exclude the fact that the winter solstice was a time for gatherings and celebrations.<\/p><p>In a bid to provide an enhanced experience for visitors, Heritage Malta is <strong>offering limited places to experience this phenomenon.<\/strong> Interested parties can <strong>purchase their tickets from all Heritage Malta museums and sites<\/strong>, <strong>or online from Heritage Malta\u2019s website<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/heritagemalta.mt\/store\/\">&nbsp;<strong>here<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;for the price of <strong>\u20ac35 per person and \u20ac25 for Heritage Malta members<\/strong>.<\/p><p><strong>Participants will meet at the \u0126a\u0121ar Qim and Mnajdra Visitor Centre at 6.15am.<\/strong><\/p><hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/><p><em>Follow&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029Vb4UJxw1yT29ko3Gkq2F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Heritage Malta\u2019s WhatsApp Channel&nbsp;<\/a>to stay informed!<\/em><\/p><p><em>Receive important alerts, including updates about potential event postponements due to unforeseen circumstances<\/em>.<\/p><p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heritage Malta invites you to welcome the winter season with a difference, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/heritagemalta.mt\/whats-on\/winter-solstice-mnajdra-2\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20841,"featured_media":249414,"template":"","event-types":[103],"accessibility":[],"class_list":["post-249412","events","type-events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","event-types-event"],"acf":{"page_watermark":false,"components":[{"acf_fc_layout":"core_-_event_single","import_checkbox":true},{"acf_fc_layout":"carousel_-_related_events","title":"You may also like","events":false}],"is_members_only":false,"video_-_webm":false,"video_-_mp4":false,"video_-_ogv":false,"book_now_endpoint":"https:\/\/heritagemalta.mt\/store\/e1870\/","external_website_cta":{"title":"21\/12 \u2013 Winter solstice \u2013 Mnajdra","url":"https:\/\/heritagemalta.mt\/store\/e1871\/","target":"_blank"},"organisations":false,"start_date":"20251220","end_date":"20251221","opening_hours":[{"days_of_week":"Saturday","time_from":"06.15","time_to":"08.30"},{"days_of_week":"Sunday","time_from":"06.15","time_to":"08.30"}],"contact_number":"","ticket_groups":[{"ticket_name":"Adult","ticket_price":"35"},{"ticket_name":"Senior","ticket_price":"35"},{"ticket_name":"Student","ticket_price":"35"},{"ticket_name":"Member","ticket_price":"25"}],"show_section_gallery":false,"show_section_event_video":false,"show_section_getting_here":true,"getting_here_address_line_1":"\u0126a\u0121ar Qim Park Visitor Centre","getting_here_address_line_2":"Triq \u0126a\u0121ar Qim","getting_here_city":"Qrendi ","getting_here_region":"Malta","google_maps_latitude":"35.8274166","google_maps_longitude":"14.4446244","google_maps_embed":"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d1360.0995530741013!2d14.44462444088023!3d35.82741659924701!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x130e511e1cfb805b%3A0x109b8722a8479b17!2s%C4%A6a%C4%A1ar%20Qim%20Park%20Visitor%20Centre!5e0!3m2!1sen!2smt!4v1764325015686!5m2!1sen!2smt\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" style=\"border:0;\" allowfullscreen=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade","walking_distance_from_nearest_bus_stop":"3"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>(FULLY BOOKED) Winter solstice \u2013 Mnajdra - Heritage Malta<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/heritagemalta.mt\/whats-on\/winter-solstice-mnajdra-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"(FULLY BOOKED) Winter solstice \u2013 Mnajdra - Heritage Malta\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Heritage Malta invites you to welcome the winter season with a difference, &hellip; 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