Application to remove Calypso’s Cave from scheduled register

Vanessa Macdonald -

The MEPA board will soon hear an application to remove 6 properties from the Antiquities List, including Calypso’s Cave.
The properties were only added to the list in 2009.

Calypso’s was listed for its ecological and geomorphological attributes. The other sites are the catacombs of Ta’ Liebru in Safi, Għajn Klieb in Rabat (which is considered to be important for archaeology as well as the cultural landscape), the dolmen in Wied Żnuber in Birżebbuġa, the cave at il-Magħqad in Xaghra (of archeological importance), and the dolmen at Ħaġra ta’ Sansuna in Xaghra.

Calypso’s Cave is a mecca for tourists seeking to follow in the footsteps of Odysseus, who is said to have been imprisoned by the siren Calypso for 7 years, who promised him immortality if he stayed with her.

But the site of Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey has been debated for centuries and there are a number of places which claim to be the siren’s island of Ogygia – ranging from the Ionian Islands in Greece to historians who believe it was on Atlantis buried beneath the Atlantic Ocean. - let alone the actual site of her cave.

The link with Gozo dates back to Greek historian Euhemerus in the late 4th century BC.

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