The island of Malta has the world’s oldest freestanding buildings: 6,000-year-old Stonehenge-like temples; invaders from Romans to Normans fought over control of its strategic location in the narrow sea between Sicily and Tunisia; St. Paul was shipwrecked there on the way to his trial in Rome and converted the entire island to Christianity; the Knights of Malta, driven out of the Holy Land at the end of the crusades, inflicted a major defeat on the Ottoman Turks, inspiring Europe to resist; Napoleon occupied the island and his troops were defeated three years later by the British, who used it as their regional naval headquarters; during World War II, the Maltese suffered through 154 days and nights of continuous bombing by the Nazis: three times as long as the London Blitz.

Malta has been a Mediterranean Forrest Gump, finding itself always in the middle of important events. Yet, with such an extraordinary history, how could it have just 1.5 million visitors a year? With a main island just fifteen miles long and seven miles wide, it has more World Heritage sites per square mile than anywhere else in the world, and, after a recent visit, we’ve concluded that Malta is the biggest little country in the world.

For our expedition to Malta we were recommended to guide Trudy Grech; she is an expert on history and culture, which was perfect as we had a lot to cover in a few days (plus, we’d heard she was an interesting conversationalist: important when you’re spending a lot of time together). We also discovered that a personal guide is the best way to have maximum flexibility for the schedule; we were able to adjust our schedule on a whim as things turned out to be more or less interesting than expected.

A Brief History of Malta

The Knights of St. John (as they were originally called) moved to Malta in 1530 after being driven from the island of Rhodes near Turkey—where they had relocated after the crusades—by Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman sultan. They immediately walled in the area by the harbor, and in May 1565, the still-reigning Suleiman began a siege of 40,000 troops against Malta’s 700 Knights, 3,000 soldiers, and 5,000 militiamen. At the time, the Ottoman Empire encompassed 15 million people and controlled the eastern Mediterranean, spreading into southern and central Europe. The Knights sent out pleas to European rulers to help them draw a line in the sand against the Turkish war machine, but no aid was received. After battering the Maltese forts for four months with 88,000 cannon balls and engaging in fierce hand-to-hand combat, the Ottomans mistook a charge by 200 cavalry from some where else on the island for the arrival of a relief army and retreated. Shortly thereafter, 8,000 soldiers from Sicily arrived and the Ottomans sailed home with just 28,000 survivors. The Knights lost 313 men, another 80 were wounded, and 9,000 Maltese citizens died. Europeans celebrated this miraculous outcome, and the following year, Suleiman died.

This dramatic story is just one of many in the island’s history, which is told beautifully in The Malta Experience, an essential way to start any visit.

Valletta

After the Great Siege, the Knights built a new capital, Valletta, into the greatest fortified city in Europe (which is featured in Gladiator, Troy, and The Count of Monte Cristo). The architectural and artistic masterpiece of Valletta is the Co-Cathedral of St. John, which was built between 1573 and 1577. It has what the New York Times has called “the most beautiful floor in the world,” and showcases inlaid marble tombs of the Knights. Since flash photography is not allowed and a picture cannot capture what the eyes can behold, one has to be standing in the middle of the cathedral to appreciate the magnificent ceiling; it has biblical and historic scenes, gold-plated arches, paintings in the side chapels by Renaissance masters Caravaggio and Preti, and sculptures of the Grand Masters (past leaders of the Knights of Saint John).

Nearby is the Palace of the Grand Masters; it has rows of empty armor standing guard along its hallways and grand collections of arms. The most fascinating room in the Palace has the famous Gobelin tapestries on the walls: they depict the impressions of early explorers of Africa and the Americas, sometimes with fanciful animals.

Casa Rocca Piccola, a mansion built in 1850 that is still inhabited, offers a peek at the history of the island’s nobility; it also includes private bomb shelters – the British used Malta as the staging ground to invade Sicily and fight Rommel in North Africa. (There are many war-related exhibits around the island). The National Museum of Archaeology brilliantly showcases sculptures left by early inhabitants, including the world’s oldest freestanding statue of a deity.

The Hypogeum

The next day, we walked through the quaint towns across the harbor from Valletta. Some of the world’s largest dockyards are there, which is why Malta was the Mediterranean headquarters for the British navy, whose history is on display at the Maritime Museum.

We then went to the Taxien temples on the outskirts of town—one of 50 prehistoric sites around the Maltese islands—which has some interesting carvings. Nearby is The Hypogeum, a rather unique structure: it is an underground temple that also served as a burial place for 7,000 people. To prevent further deterioration caused by the breath of visitors, only 10 people are allowed inside per hour (reservations need to be booked at least a few weeks in advance). We listened to an excellent audio presentation that explains everything from the great difficulty of carving sophisticated architectural features with stone tools, to theories about the meaning of the paintings on the ceilings. Having been to Stonehenge and inside the Giza pyramids, we can say that the experience of The Hypogeum is more impressive than both of those combined.

Gozo

The second-biggest island in the Maltese chain has a separate history, which is recounted at Gozo 360, a multimedia center in its main city, Rabat. After a walk through Rabat’s ancient alleys and churches, we went through the archaeology museum, which features art from the Stone Age to medieval times. We also stopped to see the Old Prisons to see the graffiti carved into the walls.

The next stop was unexpectedly inspiring. The church at Ta Pinu has been a pilgrimage shrine since 1883. When two peasants heard the voice of what they believed was the Virgin Mary, they prayed for a cure for one woman’s critically ill mother; shortly thereafter, the mother was healed. The walls of the church are decorated with written messages of prayer and thanksgiving, and with various other items, such as crutches.

After lunch we went to the world’s oldest freestanding stone buildings: two temples at Ggantija, whose construction began in 3,600 B.C.—a daunting task, since some of the stones are 20 feet high and weigh 50 tons. There is a lot more to see on Gozo, but we needed to catch the ferry back.

On our last day, we toured the central island, starting with the church at Mosta. It has one of the largest unsupported domes in Europe, decorated in a rather hypnotic style. We then walked through the atmospheric town of Mdina, the Arab capital when they occupied Malta for 200 years.

After lunch, we went through an historic Roman house with beautiful mosaics. Next, we went into the St. Agatha catacombs, where Christians—from Roman to medieval times—met and buried their dead. Nearby the catacombs is the grotto where St. Paul lived during his three-month stay.

From April to September, there are impressive pyrotechnic displays in local villages that are worth scheduling into any visit. Given that we barely got to half of the things that were on our original agenda, we have great reason to return. We just hope we can get back before everyone else realizes that it has the world’s best weather and then decides to move there.

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