Tarxien altar block

Tarxien altar: It cinsists of a block of stone 1.25 x 1.70m in length and breath, with the shorter side facing front. The front is decorated with a double row of branched spirals, as also is that portion of the west side which is not covered by the slabs of the passage. In the middle of the lower row of spirals on the S-W face, a hole has been carefully cut, whose base is 40cm long and which is 25 cm high. It is not quite semi-curcular; the bottom right hand corner is cut off sharply. The hole is covered and almost concealed, by a carefully cut plug, of the same stone as the altar itself, which fits neatly into it, and on which is carved the missing portion of the decoration. The interior of the altar has been hollowed out, so as to form a spacious cavity, the right hand wall of which is formed by the slab just described, and the rear wall by another slab which is set at right angles to the first slab of the passage. This block does not flush with this latter slab, a space of 25cm being left through which access can be had to the cavity from the rear. The space is masked by an elaborate construction consisting of a plinth 75cm long, 30cm broad and 10cm in height flanked by two pillar-like slabs 15 x 40 x 100cm. Between these stands a slab 75 x 50 cm with a rectanglar window-like opening 36 x 25cm, the bottom of which is 5cm above the plinth. At either side of this slab, between it and the outer pillars is a slab 12 x 42 x 65cm. These project 16cm in front of the window slab and rest on the threshold slab. The space behind is roofed with two slabs, the first roughly rectangular 0.55 x 0.75 x 0.10m the second cut almost triangular to fit the space between the front roofing slab and the upright at the rear. It length is 0.85m and max breadth 0.40m.