Exploring the Catacombs

On Friday (March 4, 2011), we visited the Wignacourt Museum in Rabat, Malta (just outside of Mdina) to explore two cisterns with our robot. This museum is known for the location of St. Paul's Grotto (a small cave), which is believed to be the place of St. Paul's imprisonment on the island of Malta. This site is also known for its catacombs, which accommodated over 1,000 corpses. During World War II, these catacombs were then used for bomb shelters for British soldiers. Between exploring the cisterns with the robot, we were able to explore these catacombs.


The cisterns that were explored at this site were at most 2 meters deep. One of the cisterns was estimated to be circular with a 2 meter diameter and also a 3 meter tunnel.


The other cistern was square with dimensions estimated to be 7 meters by 4 meters. This cistern contained two pillars with a 1 meter deep reservoir about 1 meter by 1.3 meters. We did find some garbage in this cistern and actually got the vertical propeller caught in fishing wire. Other than that, we were able to successfully collect enough static sonar scans to cover all the area of the cistern. This site was very successful and the on-site priest, Father John, was very accommodating.