Għar Dalam (pronounced ar dàlam in Maltese and meaning "Cave of Darkness") is a prehistorical cul de sac located on the outskirts of Birżebbuġa, Malta containing the bone remains of animals that were stranded and subsequently became extinct on Malta at the end of the Ice age. It has lent its name to the Għar Dalam phase in Maltese prehistory.
Dwarf elephant, hippopotamus, deer and bear bone deposits found there are of a different age; the hippopotamuses became extinct about 180,000 years ago, whilst the deer species became extinct much later, about 18,000 years ago. It is also here that the earliest evidence of human settlement on Malta, some 7,400 years ago, was discovered.
The cave was first scientifically investigated in 1885 but was not opened to the public until 1933. It was used as an air-raid shelter during World War II. A museum was set up on site by the then curator of Natural History Dr J.G. Baldacchino. Unfortunately, in 1980, the most important and irreplaceable relics—such as four tusks of dwarf elephants and the skull of a Neolithic child—were stolen from the museum.
The cave was investigated in 1987 under the direction of Emanual Anati, Professor of Paleoethnology at Lecce University. His team of Italian archaeologists from Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici discovered Palaeolithic cave art depicting human hands, anthropozoomorphic, and several animal designs from underneath the stalagmatic formations. Some depicting elephants which have been extinct in the Maltese region since the Pleistocene. Most of these finds were destroyed due to recent vandalism.
The cave is some 144 metres deep but only the first fifty metres are accessible to visitors. The museum, which still exhibits a remarkable wealth of finds from animal bones to human artifacts, is the entrance to the whole area.
Għar Dalam Cave and Museum is operated by Heritage Malta.
