In a post uploaded by ‘8000 years of water’, a social media page and book recounting the history of water in Malta, one can get a glimpse of the water cisterns and basins of the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum.

We usually associate water cisterns and basins with the preservation of water, but this was not necessarily the only reason the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum had them...

These water cisterns and basins also had strong connections with the dead - in prehistoric times, water was believed to have the power of 'bridging the world of the living and the dead'.

For this reason, it was important for many that water was used to commemorate the dead as the water cisterns at the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum were used just to do so. 

As captured by Daniel Cilia, the water cisterns at the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum have a depth of around 7 metres from the floor to the ceiling and are divided into three lobes.

They are absolutely mesmerising to look at!

Have you ever seen them IRL?