Malta

Malta is three inhabited islands, Malta itself, Gozo and Comino, on a limestone shelf south of Sicily. There are no rivers or lakes, so water comes from wells and desalination plants. Most buildings, from farmhouses to baroque churches, are cut from soft, honey-coloured Globigerina limestone. Sheer cliffs line the west at Dingli; the east is indented with deep harbours. Gozo’s Azure Window, a rock arch, collapsed into the sea in 2017.

The temples of Ġgantija on Gozo were raised around 3600 BC, before the pyramids of Egypt, and the underground Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni descends three storeys into the rock. Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs and Normans followed. In 1530 Charles V granted the islands to the Knights of St John, who beat off an Ottoman siege in 1565 and built a fortified city on the Sciberras peninsula. Britain took Malta from Napoleon’s garrison in 1800. After heavy bombing in 1940–42, King George VI awarded the island the George Cross. Independence came in 1964.

Every parish has its festa, when the patron saint’s statue is carried through streets hung with damask, band clubs march and fireworks factories compete overhead. Painted luzzu fishing boats, each with an eye on its prow, crowd the harbour at Marsaxlokk, and pastizzi, flaky pastries filled with ricotta or peas, are eaten at any hour. Tourism, financial services, online gaming licences and a large ship register earn the country’s living, with the Freeport at Birżebbuġa and a semiconductor plant at Kirkop.