by Graham Stuart

from HomeOrionArtemis Website

The HYPOGEUM which I was able to visit in 1989 is now closed for conservation since 1992 - and is still closed. Could it have something to do with the following story.......???

Just beneath the southern tip of Italy, in the extreme western part of the Mediterranean sea, lies the island of Malta. In the past Malta has been the possession of many nationalities, and has been considered to be one of the most strategic areas on earth, being a port and an intersecting point between Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, etc. This 9-mile-long island was an ancient center of civilization at the time when the Phoenicians from Carthage invaded and began to rule it.

 

When a group of ancient priests who worshipped the "god" Moloch (another name for Baal, Osiris, or Nimrod - considered by the ancients to be the "sun god") visited the island in Old Testament times, the islanders readily accepted their teachings, including that of offering up human sacrifices to appease their "god" Moloch, for the ancient Maltese themselves practiced human blood sacrifice to the "gods" of the underworld which were believed to exist beneath the island and elsewhere, so-called deities which were often identified with "serpents". When the Apostle Paul visited the island as recorded in the book of ACTS chapter 28, he learned of their superstitious beliefs concerning serpents after he had been bitten by one of the beasts on the island (at the time called Melita) and survived by the power of the risen Jesus - a god which the Maltese knew nothing about until Paul’s fateful visit.

Since the time of the Carthagians, Malta has had many rulers--Romans, Arabs, Normans, Argonese, Castillians, the Hospitalers or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, later known as the Knights of Rhodes, and still later as the Knights of Malta, who remain there to this day, having duel headquarters in Rome. A few miles south of the town of Valletta, Malta, is the small village of Casal Paula. In the year 1902, workmen who were digging a well literally fell into the earth. What they discovered (or rather re-discovered) was a series of ancient caves, mostly excavated out of solid rock, which descended into the earth and into three lower levels below. These multi-leveled catacombs became known as the "Hypogeum of Hal Saflienti", named after the street beneath which they were discovered. A hypogeum is the Latin name for an underground structure.

Near the floor of the last chamber, within the 3^rd and last (officially recognized) sub-level of these ancient catacombs, there are a few so-called "burial chambers". These are only a few feet square and situated right next to the floor, and one must get on their knees just to look into them.

 

These "burial chambers" are just large enough for one to crawl through. There have for years been rumors that one of these "burial chambers" does not end, but continues into deeper and unexplored caverns beyond.

This, according to certain sources, was the subterranean passage and chamber which was referred to years ago in an article which appeared in the August, 1940 issue of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Magazine. The article stated the following concerning several people who disappeared in these catacombs without a trace:

"Many subterranean passageways, including ancient catacombs, now are a part of the island’s fortifications and defense system. Supplies are kept in many tunnels; others are bomb shelters. Beneath Valletta some of the underground areas served as homes for the poor. Prehistoric men built temples and chambers in these vaults. In a pit beside one sacrificial altar lie thousands of human skeletons. Years ago one could walk underground from one end of Malta to the other. The Government closed the entrances to these tunnels after school children and their teachers became lost in the labyrinth while on a study tour and never returned."

The story goes much "deeper" however, than the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC article indicates. Other sources say that ABOUT 30 CHILDREN vanished in these catacombs on the study tour, and that when the "Hypogeum" was first discovered nearly 30,000 human skeletons of men, women and children (victims of ancient sacrifice to the "underworld gods", performed by an old neolithic race) were discovered as well.

One article written by a Miss Lois Jessup, at the time an employee of the British embassy and later secretary for the New York Saucer Information Bureau (better known as NYSIB), appeared in an old issue of Riley Crabb’s BORDERLAND SCIENCE magazine, published by the Borderland Sciences Research Foundation (B.S.R.F.) and was later reprinted in full in Dr. Allen’s book ENIGMA FANTASTIQUE.

Miss Jessup claimed that she visited Malta and the Hypogeum also, once before the tragic disappearance of the children, and shortly thereafter. She described how on her first visit to the catacombs she finally convinced the guide to allow her to investigate one of the so-called "burial chambers" near the floor of the last chamber in the third sub-basement, the supposed "end" of the Hypogeum tour. He seemed to know something she didn’t, but finally consented and told her that she could enter at "her own risk".

 

As she did so, candle in hand and her loosed sash being used as a guide rope for her friends who followed behind, she crawled through the small passage and eventually emerged into a large cavern, where she found herself on a ledge overlooking a very deep, seemingly bottomless chasm. Below and on the other side of the chasm was another ledge which appeared to lead to a doorway or tunnel in the far wall. We realize that what happened next might sound unbelievable to many who read this, but we would ask them to make their own determination of it’s validity. Miss Jessup swears that what follows really happened.

Out of this lower tunnel on the far side of the chasm, she claims, emerged in single file several very large creatures of humanoid form but completely covered with hair from head to foot. Noticing her, they raised their arms in her direction, palms out, at which point a violent "wind" began to blow through the cavern, snuffing out her candle. Then, some "thing" wet and slippery (apparently a creature of a different sort) brushed past her.

 

This all happened just as the person behind her was beginning to emerge from the passage and into the cavern. They could not understand her panicked attempts to get back to the "Hypogeum" room, but they consented after she insisted. When they found themselves back in the Hypogeum chamber, the guide saw her expression and gave her a "knowing" look. About a week afterwards the disappearance of the children and their teacher(s) took place, and on her second visit she saw an entirely new guide who denied that the other guide had ever worked there, although she knew that this new guide was hiding something.

She learned from more cooperative sources however, that THIS was the tunnel that the children and their teacher(s) and possibly the old guide, had entered. She also learned that after the last child had made it through, the walls of the small tunnel just "happened" to collapse or cave-in. Although the official version stated that the walls caved-in on the students, search parties were never able to locate any trace of the teacher(s) or the children, although the rope that they had used to fasten themselves to the lower Hypogeum chamber was found to have been CLEAN CUT as if by something sharp (not falling rock). It was asserted that for weeks afterwards the wailing and screaming of children was heard underground in different parts of the island, but no one could locate the sources of the cries.

As for the Catacombs beneath Malta itself, there are some ancient accounts which say that deep caverns beneath the island continue underground BEYOND the shores, and according to one source [i.e. the ever elusive "Commander-X"], part of this labyrinth stretches hundreds of miles northwards and intersects with catacombs beneath Rome (the hill Vaticanus?) or at least did so in ancient times...