National Museum of Archaeology
Malta's prehistoric and Phoenician finds, including the Sleeping Lady, in the Auberge de Provence.
The museum occupies the Auberge de Provence, built in 1571 as the residence of the Provencal knights of the Order of St John and attributed to Girolamo Cassar. After serving as a club under British rule, the building was given over to the national archaeological collection, which opened here in 1958. Its ground-floor galleries follow Maltese prehistory from the first farmers of around 5900 BC through the temple-building centuries, while the first floor carries the richly painted Gran Salon.
The displays gather material excavated from the island's megalithic sites and burial grounds. Among the best-known pieces are the Sleeping Lady from the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, the small figure known as the Venus of Malta, and fragments of the colossal statue from Tarxien. Upper rooms cover the Bronze Age, the Phoenician and Punic periods, and include one of the two Cippi of Melqart whose bilingual inscription helped scholars read Phoenician script.
Highlights
- The Sleeping Lady, a clay figure from the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum
- Venus of Malta and other Neolithic figurines
- Cippus of Melqart with its Phoenician and Greek inscription
- The Gran Salon of the Auberge de Provence
![[King Thibaw Min's Throne Room - Mandalay]title QS:P1476,en:"[King Thibaw Min's Throne Room - Mandalay]"label QS:Len,"[King Thibaw Min's Throne Room - Mandalay]"](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/Felice_Beato_%28British%2C_born_Italy_-_%28King_Thibaw_Min%27s_Throne_Room_-_Mandalay%29_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/500px-Felice_Beato_%28British%2C_born_Italy_-_%28King_Thibaw_Min%27s_Throne_Room_-_Mandalay%29_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
