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Published: January 25th 2020
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Malta 18-23 January 2020
In the last blog I promised to stay quiet until we go to Argentina later this month as we spent the autumn in Lanzarote and there have been numerous blogs from there on previous trips. However as we did a quick side trip to Malta this blog shows some pictures of our highlights there.
The reasons for visiting Malta were threefold, to avoid a few grey days in England in January, we have never been before and we spotted a very good deal as it is not really a winter resort although we were lucky and had mild sunny weather throughout our visit.
So the timing meant that we wanted to sight-see rather than snorkel and in fact the sea looked cold and uninviting but I am sure that changes in the summer.
We stayed a short bus ride from Valletta, the capital, and could go in by hotel shuttle bus or local bus. Once we absorbed the routes and times of buses we found them to be a real bonus. A ticket costs 1.50 euros and lasts for two hours. In that time you
can change buses as often as you wish. Having said that travel is very slow as Malta is a small and very congested island. In fact, from Marsaxlokk in the south east to St Paul's in the north east it is so densely populated that it seems to be one giant conurbation. The west coast is wilder but there are few roads and even fewer buses there.
What made our stay fascinating was the history of the island - all 7,000 years of it! For a very brief summary read on. (From DK Eye Witness book Malta & Gozo)
5000 - 2500 BCE
Prehistoric times. The first of the temples built on the island dates from 3600 BC but evidence in the Ghar Dalam cave suggests it was inhabited from around 7000 BC. After the temple building period little is known of the inhabitants through the Bronze Age and up to 800 BC
800 BC
–
400 CE
Phoenicians arrived about 800 BC as they developed transport routes across the Mediterranean. The
Carthaginians used the islands as a military base from around 600 BC until their defeat by the
Romans in 218 BC. According to legend St Paul was shipwrecked in the islands in CE 60 and this was the start of the powerful influence of Christianity in Malta.
4
th Century – 1090
Byzantine & Muslim eras.
After the division of the Roman Empire in 395 Malta came under the control of the Byzantines until their were defeated by Arab caliphs who left their mark on the language and agriculture. The islands fell to Count Roger the Norman in 1090.
1090 – 1282
Medieval period Under Norman rule until the Swabian kings took over
1282 – 1530
Spanish Rule Under the rule of the Aragonese and then Castilians during which time the first Maltese nobles were appointed
1530 – 1798
Knights of Malta.
The Order of the Knights of St John was founded in Jerusalem in the 11
th century and they were organized into national chapters or Langues. The supreme heads were called Grand Masters who were very powerful individuals. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V offered the Knights the Maltese islands in exchange for the annual payment of a live Maltese falcon.
The Knights built Valletta along with numerous palaces, fortifications, engineering works and auberges to provide the Knights with accommodation. They defeated the Turks in the Great Siege of 1565.
1798 – 1800
French Rule In 1798 Napoleon took Malta from the Knights without a struggle. He stayed only six nights but plundered all valuables. The Maltese asked the British for help who gave it, and then took control themselves.
1814 – 1964
British Rule Malta was declared a British colony in 1814 at the Treaty of Paris, and it grew wealthy as a refueling stop for steamships passing to and fro to India.
During WW 1 it was used as a hospital and in WW 11 it was heavily bombed leading to the award of the
George Cross to the island in 1942 in recognition of the bravery of the Maltese people.
Independence was granted in 1964 and Malta joined the
EU in 2004.
For the first couple of days I spent time looking for the 'character' of Malta, in its people, buildings, language, food, signage etc. But I could not
find it. Everything is such a mixture, the language sounds like a mix of Arabic, Italian, English with the occasional Russian sounds popping up, some signs look Arabic while others are very English (eg No Entry apart from when rendering a service to residents), food from all over the Mediterranean (and further afield) can be found here and it is probably the most cosmopolitan place I have encountered outside London. Then I looked again at the history and the penny dropped – that is the character of Malta! It has been a crossroads for so many centuries, and been controlled by so many other nations and groups that it is an amalgam of all of them.
We traveled to the south coast, then up to the north from where we could see the islands of Comino and Gozo, we saw the amazing Baroque churches including the astounding St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta and best of all we visited the Tarxian temples and the Hypogeum at Hal Saflieni in Paola. The Tarxian temples have suffered from weathering over the centuries as well as human damage but the Hypogeum avoided the weathering because it is a network of temples
and burial chambers built underground. As photography is not allowed in the hypogeum I have used some of their publicity photos
It is wonderful because where it has been protected you can see the way the rock (limestone) has been carved smooth to give an astonishing impression of 'built' architecture. It glitters in reflected light and suggests how other ancient structures, such as Stonehenge, might have appeared before being worn away over the centuries. Unfortunately after being opened up to the public about 1910 for decades there was gradual deterioration including mold growth as a result of the high levels of moisture and CO2 created by the visitors. So the temple was closed for some for cleaning and installation of equipment to measure the atmosphere. Now it is tightly controlled with only 10 people being allowed in each hour for a few hours a day and closed if the CO2 level rises too high.
Unfortunately just before we left Lanzarote we watched a documentary describing how Malta is now one of, if not the, most financially corrupt countries in the world, controlled by a particular Mafia group and carrying out more laundering of money
from criminal activity then anywhere else. This must cast a shadow over future development if the scale of the sophisticated criminality outlined in the programme is accurate. I hope they were exaggerating!
We fly out to Buenos Aires on Monday 27
th so more from there or further south but as wifi may be a problem on board the cruise ship (as in far too expensive to use!) it may be some time before posting the next blog.
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