believed to have been abandoned in around 500 BC, when Malta fell under the control of the Phoenicians. Excavations and recent history The temple was discovered in the 16th century. The French cleric John Quintin noticed the various scattered megaliths and ruined structures and identified them as the ruins of a sanctuary of Hercules. The first excavations took place two centuries later, when Annetto Caruana dug various trenches inside the temple complex and discovered the Bronze Age fortification. Other excavations took place in the 19th and 20th centuries. By now, it was thought that the temple was Punic in origin, and that it was dedicated to Melqart. In 1881, the first foundations of the Bronze Age huts in the fields surrounding the temple were discovered. After being excavated, the huts' foundations were reburied for preservation, but the ancient bastion was left exposed. The team leading the excavation restored the wall with new stones where the original ones were missing. The mound of earth that was removed in the excavation of this wall remains there to this day and it is now known as Borġ in-Nadur Hill. On 31 May 1920, 32 prehistoric silos in the vicinity of Borġ in-Nadur were destroyed to make way for a new road. Another 41 silos were destroyed when the road was widened later on. Despite this, other silos still exist and can be seen in the area around St George's Bay. Between 1922 and 1927, Margaret Murray investigated the main temple area. Further excavations of the Bronze Age village took place in 1959, and the foundations were once again reburied after being studied. The site was included on the Antiquities List of 1925. The site is now closed to the public and its preservation is the responsibility of Heritage Malta. Today, Borġ in-Nadur is not very well preserved and it appears as a large site, only slightly visible on the ground. Since 2006, a local resident Angelik Caruana claimed to have seen visions of the Virgin Mary at Borġ in-Nadur Hill, and a cross was erected on the hill to mark these apparitions. In 2016, the church concluded that the apparitions were not divine. References Megalithic Temples of Malta Neolithic sites Fortifications in Malta Bronze Age sites in Europe Birżebbuġa Sites managed by Heritage Malta