Hagar Qim was the third temple to be built in the Maltese Islands. It is quite large but smaller than Ggantija Hagar Qim lies just 500 metres away from the Imnajdra Temple thus suggesting a probable competition between the tribes taking care of the temples (just as nowadays we have piques between the band clubs of the various village feasts). Its layout is very similar in shape of the other temples. In other words it is made up of eight apses. One of the original features of Hagar Qim is a number of small mushroom-shaped altars made out of carved stone. The original altars can now be found in the Museum of Archaeology.
Before entering the main temple, one can see the remains of a secondary temple together with some round stones, which give us EVIDENCE that they were probably used as rollers to carry the large megalithic boulders to the temple site.
A hole in the ground in front of the temple gives us ample EVIDENCE that it was probably used as a fireplace since there are fire-marks around it. It could also be used to store the bones of sacrificed animals since archaeologists have found many remains of bones of animals.
One enters into the temple through a "Trilithon Entrance", which is an entrance made up of three megalithic boulders; that is a horizontal one standing on two vertical ones. This type of entrance is a typical characteristic of the Maltese Pre-Historic megalithic Temples. In this temple, archaeologists also found a stone monument called "The tree of Life" since it has a tree carved on it. They have also found a stone slab decorated with spiral patterns. Nowadays one can only see the copies in the temple since the originals are in the Museum of Archaeology. Two mushroom-shaped stone altars have also been found and they give ample EVIDENCE that this place was used as a temple for religious ceremonies since in each altar, figures of "The Fat Lady", which was the goddess of Fertility, have been found.In the temple one can also find the "Hole of the Oracle". This again gives us EVIDENCE that in this place rituals were carried out. In another apse, more animal bones were found. This "bone storage place" gives ample EVIDENCE that animal sacrifices were offered to the goddess of Fertility.
The temple was probably roofed since in the temple of Ta' Hagrat at Mgarr, a small stone model of a roofed temple was found. Some round stones found at the base of large boulders, have small holes in them. This suggests that ropes for handling them could have been passed through them.
