Xagħra Stone Circle

The Brochtorff Circle, also known as the Xaghra Stone Circle, is an all but vanished prehistoric stone circle some 45 metres across on the Xaghra plateau on Gozo, only 300 metres from the Ggantija Temple. The circle covered an underground hypogeum used between 4000 and 2500 BC as a collective burial site for Malta's temple culture - bones of more than 220,000 individuals have been excavated. The site is named after the Maltese-German painter Charles de Brochtorff, who recorded the circle in a watercolour in 1825 before local farmers dismantled it. Today the area is fenced off and usually closed; what remains can only be visited on Heritage Malta guided tours. The finds are displayed at the Archaeological Museum in Victoria.