Calypso's Cave, where the Odyssey looks down on Ramla

Calypso’s Cave is one of those places where the myth outweighs the site, and you should know as much before setting off. What you’ll find is a spot on the edge of Xagħra with a commanding view over Ramla Bay and a story from the Odyssey behind it. What I can’t promise is that you’ll get inside the cave, because no official source says so.

What Calypso’s Cave is

The Ministry for Gozo places it at the edge of Xagħra, with a splendid view over Ramla, and describes it as a different kind of cave from the village’s others, the mythological one said to be home to the nymph Calypso in Homer’s Odyssey. The others, Xerri’s Grotto and Ninu’s Cave, lie under private houses and are full of stalactites. This one is all legend.

Search for “Calypso” on Gozo and a few other things with the name will pop up, so to be clear, the cave I mean is the one at Xagħra, looking down on the red sand.

Odysseus and Calypso’s island

In the Odyssey, Calypso is the nymph who keeps Odysseus on her island for seven years. The Ministry for Gozo embraces the tradition that the island was Gozo and uses it cheerfully in its own marketing, even suggesting that if Odysseus arrived today he’d find it harder still to leave. Heritage Malta does the same when introducing its Gozo tickets, with the nymph who detained Ulysses for seven years.

To my mind these identifications are more literary than historical, and I’ll present them that way. The interesting thing isn’t whether Homer had this particular hillside in mind, but that a whole island has made the myth part of its identity.

What you see from the top

What is real, and very good, is the view. From the edge of Xagħra you take in the whole of Ramla Bay, the reddish sand, the protected dunes behind and the valley of dry-stone terraces running down to the beach. It’s where the landscape makes sense, and the spot I’d choose for a photo before going down to the sand.

In the afternoon the light rakes across the bay. In the morning the beach is still empty. Both work for me. The one time I’d avoid is midday in high summer.

Pairing it with Xagħra and Ramla

The cave isn’t a half-day outing, it’s a stop. The Ministry for Gozo includes it in its Xagħra Heritage Trail, a village walk linking the Ġgantija temples, the 18th-century Ta’ Kola Windmill, the square with its church and the cave itself. That’s exactly how I’d do it, on foot and unhurried.

My order would be Ġgantija at opening time, Ta’ Kola Windmill on the same ticket, a coffee in the square at Xagħra, Calypso’s Cave to look over Ramla and, from there, down to the beach for a swim. With a car, you drive down. On foot, factor in the climb back up, which you’ll feel in summer.

Getting there without a car

You don’t need wheels for this one. According to Heritage Malta, Ġgantija’s closest bus stop is a two-minute walk from its gate, and from the temples it’s a walk through the village streets to the edge of Xagħra where the cave looks over Ramla. Buses on Gozo mostly run hourly from Victoria, so check your return before setting off.

Xagħra’s other caves

If it’s a proper cave you’re after, Xagħra has others that deliver. Under a pair of ordinary village houses lie Xerri’s Grotto and Ninu’s Cave, which the Ministry for Gozo singles out for the shapes of their stalactites and stalagmites, formed over centuries by rainwater filtering through the limestone. Heritage Malta also lists Ta’ Għejżu Cave in the village, discovered in 1933, and, 400 metres from the temples, the Xagħra Circle, where Neolithic people buried their dead in caves, open only to small groups.

What I can’t confirm

I want to be straight about this, since it’s the question people ask most. The official sources I’ve read, the Ministry for Gozo and Heritage Malta, don’t mention visits inside the cave, opening hours or tickets. Nor is it among the sites Heritage Malta runs. So I treat it as a viewpoint with a story, and I’d suggest you go with that in mind.