Through this is seen a shrine (?) consisting of a box (_d_) made of five well-cut slabs of stone, the front being open. The aperture by which _F_ is entered was evidently intended to be closed with a slab of stone from the inside of _F_, for it was rebated on that side, and there are holes to be used in securing the slab. When the entrance was thus blocked _F_ still communicated with _E_ by means of a small rectangular window 16 inches by 12 in one of the adjacent slabs (visible in Pl. III). [Illustration: PLATE III TEMPLE OF MNAIDRA, MALTA. APSE OF CHIEF ROOM To face p. 100] Returning to the area _E_ we find in the south-west wall an elaborate doorway (Pl. II, Fig. I, p. 82) leading to a rectangular room _H_. The doorway consists of two tall pillars with a great lintel laid across the top. The space between the pillars is closed by a fixed vertical slab in which is a window-like aperture similar to that which gives access to Room _F_. All the stones in this doorway are ornamented with pit-marks. The rectangular room _H_ has niches in its walls to the north, south, and west. Each niche is formed by a pair of uprights with a block laid across the top. The west niche is occupied by a horizontal table or slab (_e_) supported at its centre by a stone pillar 39 inches in height, of circular section narrowing in the centre (visible through the doorway in Pl. II, Fig. I). The southern niche contains an ordinary trilithon table (_f_): the northern niche is damaged, but apparently held a table like that of the western. The area _I_ consists of only half an ellipse, the southern half being replaced by the area _H_, which we have already described. It has a rectangular niche to the west containing a fine trilithon with a cover-slab nearly 10 feet long. The whole of the southern half of the Mnaidra temple is surrounded by a wall of huge rough blocks of stone, presenting a great contrast to the dressed slabs of which the inner walls are formed. They are placed alternately with their broad faces and their narrow edges outwards. The roughness of this enclosure wall gives the structure a remarkably wild and craggy appearance from a distance. The northern half of Mnaidra is clearly a later addition. There is no doubt as to the way in which the areas were roofed. In the apse-like ends of the elliptical rooms the horizontal courses are corbelled, i.e. each course projects slightly forward over the last. Thus the space narrows as the walls rise, until the aperture is small enough to be roofed by great slabs laid across. The corbelling of the apse is just perceptible in Pl. III. Whether the roofing of the Mnaidra temple was ever complete it is impossible to say: in any case the system we have described could only be applied to the apsidal portions of the areas, and their centres must either have been open to the sky or roofed quite simply with slabs.