Malta is a deceptively small island but one boasting a rich, complex and turbulent past.
Its strategically critical location, at the crossroads of the western and eastern Mediterranean, has made it a prized and contested possession throughout most of recorded history.
The state of Malta is an archipelago of three sister islands, each of a very different nature.
Malta itself, the largest, boasts the most splendid harbour in the Mediterranean at Valletta.
The ancient hilltop fortress of Mdina forms a natural defensive site and vantage point in the centre of the island.
Malta is densely populated, with over 380,000 inhabitants jammed into a land area of less than a hundred square miles.
Many tourists flock to the overbuilt resorts of Bugibba and Qawra on the north east coast, along the sweep of St Paul's Bay.
Gozo, the northerly isle, is much more rural and unspoilt with less than a tenth of its neighbour's population.
The Azure Window, the curious Inland Sea and the sleepy town of Victoria (Rabat) are essential destinations.
The third island of Comino is a barren rock in the Gozo Channel between the islands boasting only a single hotel, a medieval tower and the stunning Blue Lagoon to draw in tourists.
The Maltese islands were first settled by travellers from Sicily around 5,200 BC.
These early mysterious settlers threw up incredible temples that pre-date the Pyramids to form the oldest free standing stone structures in the word.
These Gjantija edifices (literally, "belonging to the giants") are monumental and unsettling, the centre of some ancient fertility cult and built with enormous precision and care centuries before Stonehenge.
Eventually this culture vanished and the Greeks and Phoenicians colonised the island, before all were swept away by the brute power of Rome.
A pivotal event in the history of Malta occurred when a mysterious stranger from Tarsus was shipwrecked off the north east coast in the first century AD.
The crew were able to swim to shore, and "the islanders showed us unusual kindness.
They built a fire and welcomed us because it was raining and cold".
(Acts 28:2) Saint Paul was on his way to face trial at Rome but destiny had taken him on a different path.
As he was constructing a fire, St Paul was bitten by a viper, but suffered no ill effects.
In the ensuing days, he miraculously healed the father of the Roman Governor Publius and the new religion of Christianity spread like wildfire.
Malta today remains one of the most devoutly Roman Catholic nations in the world.
St.
Paul's Bay, where the Apostle was shipwrecked, now boasts a striking statue of its most famous visitor.
As the centuries turned, Malta fell under Arab control from 870 AD which led to a tremendous flowering of art and architecture on the island.
Yet the island's sojourn in the Moslem world was brief and Count Roger of Sicily, a northern European adventurer from Normandy, soon took control.
The medieval age was bloody and brutal as European rulers treated the island as a pawn in a chess game.
Finally the island was commandeered for a pivotal military role in the defence of western Europe.
In 1530 it was given to the dispossessed and expelled Knights of St John as their new home following the fall of Rhodes.
The ensuing Siege of Malta in 1565 was one of the most momentous and dramatic events of the sixteenth century.
This single event can be credited with halting the Ottoman expansion into western Europe.
The defenders of Fort St Elmo were massacred to the last man, but Grand Master Jean de Valette triumphed at the last.
Following this deliverance, de Valette took the visionary decision to carve a brand new capital city out of the high and barren slopes of Mount Xiberrus.
The resulting city, Valletta, was designed on a modern grid pattern and is an architectural gem.
Valletta is a historical enclave of tremendous import and a UNESCO World Heritage City.
The Co-Cathedral of St John the Redeemer houses a world class masterpiece of Caravaggio, the Beheading of John the Baptist.
Eventually the Knights fell and the island was consumed by the violence and power of Napoleon's Revolution.
The British Empire, sensing the strategic utility of the island, liberated it from the French in 1800 but stayed on as its rulers.
Valletta grew into an essential port for the Royal Navy and a long and largely fruitful symbiotic relationship with Great Britain was born.
Valletta endured a fire storm of almost unimaginable horror under relentless German attack in the Second World War.
The city suffered more days of continuous bombardment that London during the Blitz.
For this act of heroic endurance and gallantry, the George Cross was awarded to the island and still features prominently on the Maltese flag.
When independence was granted in 1964, the Maltese ruled their own island for the first time in millennia.
It is no accident that many scenes from Ridley Scott's masterpiece "Gladiator" were filmed in the dust and heat of Malta.
This small archipelago has been Europe's own cockpit of battle, its own gladiatoral arena, for centuries.
Perhaps only in the twenty-first century will these tiny islands, poised on the linchpin of history, find some peace.
Its strategically critical location, at the crossroads of the western and eastern Mediterranean, has made it a prized and contested possession throughout most of recorded history.
The state of Malta is an archipelago of three sister islands, each of a very different nature.
Malta itself, the largest, boasts the most splendid harbour in the Mediterranean at Valletta.
The ancient hilltop fortress of Mdina forms a natural defensive site and vantage point in the centre of the island.
Malta is densely populated, with over 380,000 inhabitants jammed into a land area of less than a hundred square miles.
Many tourists flock to the overbuilt resorts of Bugibba and Qawra on the north east coast, along the sweep of St Paul's Bay.
Gozo, the northerly isle, is much more rural and unspoilt with less than a tenth of its neighbour's population.
The Azure Window, the curious Inland Sea and the sleepy town of Victoria (Rabat) are essential destinations.
The third island of Comino is a barren rock in the Gozo Channel between the islands boasting only a single hotel, a medieval tower and the stunning Blue Lagoon to draw in tourists.
The Maltese islands were first settled by travellers from Sicily around 5,200 BC.
These early mysterious settlers threw up incredible temples that pre-date the Pyramids to form the oldest free standing stone structures in the word.
These Gjantija edifices (literally, "belonging to the giants") are monumental and unsettling, the centre of some ancient fertility cult and built with enormous precision and care centuries before Stonehenge.
Eventually this culture vanished and the Greeks and Phoenicians colonised the island, before all were swept away by the brute power of Rome.
A pivotal event in the history of Malta occurred when a mysterious stranger from Tarsus was shipwrecked off the north east coast in the first century AD.
The crew were able to swim to shore, and "the islanders showed us unusual kindness.
They built a fire and welcomed us because it was raining and cold".
(Acts 28:2) Saint Paul was on his way to face trial at Rome but destiny had taken him on a different path.
As he was constructing a fire, St Paul was bitten by a viper, but suffered no ill effects.
In the ensuing days, he miraculously healed the father of the Roman Governor Publius and the new religion of Christianity spread like wildfire.
Malta today remains one of the most devoutly Roman Catholic nations in the world.
St.
Paul's Bay, where the Apostle was shipwrecked, now boasts a striking statue of its most famous visitor.
As the centuries turned, Malta fell under Arab control from 870 AD which led to a tremendous flowering of art and architecture on the island.
Yet the island's sojourn in the Moslem world was brief and Count Roger of Sicily, a northern European adventurer from Normandy, soon took control.
The medieval age was bloody and brutal as European rulers treated the island as a pawn in a chess game.
Finally the island was commandeered for a pivotal military role in the defence of western Europe.
In 1530 it was given to the dispossessed and expelled Knights of St John as their new home following the fall of Rhodes.
The ensuing Siege of Malta in 1565 was one of the most momentous and dramatic events of the sixteenth century.
This single event can be credited with halting the Ottoman expansion into western Europe.
The defenders of Fort St Elmo were massacred to the last man, but Grand Master Jean de Valette triumphed at the last.
Following this deliverance, de Valette took the visionary decision to carve a brand new capital city out of the high and barren slopes of Mount Xiberrus.
The resulting city, Valletta, was designed on a modern grid pattern and is an architectural gem.
Valletta is a historical enclave of tremendous import and a UNESCO World Heritage City.
The Co-Cathedral of St John the Redeemer houses a world class masterpiece of Caravaggio, the Beheading of John the Baptist.
Eventually the Knights fell and the island was consumed by the violence and power of Napoleon's Revolution.
The British Empire, sensing the strategic utility of the island, liberated it from the French in 1800 but stayed on as its rulers.
Valletta grew into an essential port for the Royal Navy and a long and largely fruitful symbiotic relationship with Great Britain was born.
Valletta endured a fire storm of almost unimaginable horror under relentless German attack in the Second World War.
The city suffered more days of continuous bombardment that London during the Blitz.
For this act of heroic endurance and gallantry, the George Cross was awarded to the island and still features prominently on the Maltese flag.
When independence was granted in 1964, the Maltese ruled their own island for the first time in millennia.
It is no accident that many scenes from Ridley Scott's masterpiece "Gladiator" were filmed in the dust and heat of Malta.
This small archipelago has been Europe's own cockpit of battle, its own gladiatoral arena, for centuries.
Perhaps only in the twenty-first century will these tiny islands, poised on the linchpin of history, find some peace.
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