There wasn’t a good title I could come up with for this post. Malta was another surprising country and astonishing trip. I wish I would have taken a notebook and pen with me as I was walking around the city to write down everything I learned and saw. Like Istanbul, the history steeped in every street corner was hard to miss.

Malta is about 50 miles south of Sicily and about 200 miles north of Africa. Malta, itself is less than 200 square miles total split between all its islands. It’s location in the Mediterranean Sea combined with it’s natural deep and well-protected harbors are the main reasons why this little archipelago has remained so popular over the centuries. Despite the mix of Maltese and Arabic languages across the country, it still held a very Italian/European feel to me. The winding streets, the views of the water in every direction…the Catholic Church’s on every corner…

The Ggantija Temples were the oldest ruins I saw on this trip, and I think probably my life. They were built ~5500 years ago. The thing that still sites with me were these perfectly round holes through two feet thick rocks…. 5500 years ago? What did they do – have two dudes with another rock spinning it in circles to drill through the rocks? And these enormous rocks that they somehow drug to the highest part of the hills just never broke as they were doing this? My brain does not comprehend.

How about St. Paul’s Cathedral? In AD 60, St Paul was shipwrecked here. In the Acts of the Apostles Malta is mentioned by name as where St Paul stayed for a few months. So in addition to 5,500 year old ruins, you’ll walk the same streets and hills as St. Paul did.

The Knights of St. John have a cool story as well. Reminds me of the modern day special forces. The City Gate at Valetta is impressive to walk up to. Basically, the knights dug down deep into the ground to build a ‘moat’ (but without water) around the city and used all the rock and stone to build the wall up high above the ground. They didn’t build the fort in a circle but with jagged lines so that the cannons could protect all areas of the wall during an invasion. A small country, with a very small force of knights held off some of the biggest powers in the world with the way they built things up.

Mdina’s front gate will look familiar to you Game of Thrones fans, in fact, a lot of Malta will look familiar if you’ve watched game of thrones or Jurassic World… or 13 hours… or about 20 other movies with a majority of the scenes shot in Malta.

I could go on an on. Malta is definitely a location where I recommend buying the lonely planet (or similar) guide to walk around with. There is so much history it’s worth having something in your back pocket to read as you’re walking around the cities. I’ve included my list of spots I recommend to go to while you’re in country:
– Valetta
– Three Cities
– Callypso’s Cave
– Ggantija Temples
– St. Paul’s Cathedral
– Mostadome
– Mdina/Rabat
– St. Thomas Tower