5900 BC to 700 BC

The temple builders

Farmers from Sicily reached Malta around 5900 BC. Between about 3600 and 2500 BC their descendants built great stone temples such as Ggantija on Gozo and Hagar Qim, among the oldest free-standing buildings in the world, and carved the underground Hypogeum. This temple culture ended around 2500 BC, and Bronze Age peoples followed.