I Spent My Honeymoon In Historic Malta
Because Malta is situated just off the southernmost point of mainland Europe and not far north of the continent of Africa, it has been a very strategic island for as long as the history books go back. Over the centuries it has been inhabited by many different cultures and each one has impacted on the lifestyle in the Maltese islands today.
Their earliest inhabitants that can be traced go back to around 5000 BC. The Sicani came from nearby Sicily but there is now nothing left to show the way they lived. Very different however were the next people recorded there. They built megalithic temples which are believed to be older than any other stone man made structure in the world today. They were built probably 3000 years BC. They are certainly the oldest that I have seen.
Next came a series of Bronze age visitors until the next major influence came from the Phoenicians who are believed to have arrived there in the 7th century BC. Theirs is the strain of chromosome that can be found in around a half of people born in Malta today. At that time Malta was made into a Punic colony.
There is plenty of evidence of a Jewish presence on the island throughout all this time and indeed St. Paul converted a lot of the islanders to Christianity. There is a legacy left from the Moors who inhabited for a while around this time.
In the early centuries AD the Romans set up a colony there and the Normans occupied at the back end of the 11th century. There is a lot of Moorish culture on Malta and Gozo where the Moors set up a lot of the farming facilities such as crop rotation that are still used.
The islands were given to The Knights of St John in 1530 and they ruled there for almost 300 years during which time their most notable achievement was to fight off an attempted invasion by the very powerful Ottoman empire army.
Napoleon conquered the islands in the late 18th century but the islanders quickly rebelled and the islands passed into the hands of the British. It was a very strategic place in the Crimean war and both the world wars when it was extensively used by the British as a hospital base and became known as the nurse of the Mediterranean.
It was awarded the George Cross for its inhabitants being so heroic actions to withstand the onslaughts of Italy.
It remained British until 1964 when it was granted its independence. It has recently become a part of the European Union.
One of the things that I will remember for ever is driving through some barren countryside with men and women working in the fields using oxen. Then appeared the enormous dome of St Paul’s Cathedral in Mdina the ancient capital. It seemed out of place to see such opulence in such a poor area.
It was a brilliant honeymoon and I recommend it for anyone interested in culture.
| Spirit Of Malta (overview Of The Island) |
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