Photos

The ‘girna’

is a sort of hut found in the Maltese countryside. The interior of these huts is inevitably dome­shaped, but the exterior takes on a variety of forms - circular, oval, square, rectangular. There are 'double' giren, and giren surround­ed by a buttressing wall. Others have a second storey built on top. Some are even incorporat­ed into rubble walls, though these are small and only suitable for sheltering one or two per­sons.
Square or rectangular giren serve more practical purposes, particularly for the shelter­ing or raising of livestock, but circular giren are more common because building them is more straight forward.
There is less difficulty in incline towards the ceiling. The narrow roof opening is then covered over with a stone slab. The wall is double, and the space in between is filled with rubble and gravel. The roof is covered over with fragments of stone, sand, lime, or ground pottery mixtures. One known example was roofed over with cane and sea­weed, covered with a mixture of hard debris, bringing the dome to a close.
The roofs are flattish, allowing for the drying of tomatoes, figs, and carobs. Some giren have steps leading up to the roof. The height may have been used as a vantage point for the surveying of crops, to check against theft.