55 Fun Facts About Malta

Malta lies further south than which of these capital cities?

Tunis lies north of every point in Malta: Tunisia's coast reaches so far up the Mediterranean that its capital sits level with Spain's southern shore.

What is the capital of Malta?

Valletta was built from scratch by the Knights after the siege of 1565 to fortify their hold on the island, and fewer than 6,000 people live in it today.

Besides Malta itself, which two islands of the archipelago are inhabited?

Gozo and Comino: more than 30,000 people live on Gozo, which legend makes the island where the nymph Calypso held Odysseus, while tiny Comino has only a handful of residents.

Which two languages does Malta's constitution name as official?

Maltese and English are both official under the constitution, with Maltese the national language; if the Maltese and English texts of a law conflict, the Maltese version prevails.

The Maltese language descends from which extinct dialect?

Siculo-Arabic, the Arabic once spoken in Sicily, died out there after the Norman conquest but lived on in Malta, leaving Maltese as its only surviving descendant.

Which country is Malta's nearest neighbour?

Italy is nearest: Sicily lies less than 100 km to the north, and in the Ice Ages elephants and hippos walked to Malta across a land bridge between the two.

Which biblical figure was shipwrecked on Malta around AD 60, according to the Acts of the Apostles?

St Paul, being shipped to Rome for trial, was wrecked on Malta in Acts 27-28, where he healed the father of Publius, the island's chief man, who by tradition became its first bishop.

The Arabs conquered Malta in 870 from which empire?

Byzantine rule ended when the Aghlabids took Malta in 870, and a later Arab chronicler wrote that the island lay almost empty until Muslim settlers rebuilt its main town around 1048.

Which Norman leader attacked Malta in 1091 and is credited by legend with the colours of its flag?

Roger I of Sicily landed in 1091 and took an oath of loyalty and tribute from Malta's Muslim rulers; the tale that he tore a strip from his own banner to give the islanders their colours is a later invention.

In 1530, Charles V handed Malta to the Knights Hospitaller in return for what yearly tribute?

A falcon a year was the only payment Charles V's grant demanded of the Knights, who had been without a home for seven years since the Ottomans drove them from Rhodes.

Which Grand Master led the Knights through the Great Siege of 1565?

Jean de Valette held out against the Ottomans through the summer of 1565, then founded a fortified new city that took his name, though he died in 1568 before it was finished.

Which Ottoman sultan sent the fleet that besieged Malta in 1565?

Suleiman the Magnificent had driven the Knights from Rhodes in 1522 and let them sail away; when he sent a fleet after them to Malta 43 years later, the siege failed.

Which fort fell to the Ottomans after holding out for a month of Malta's Great Siege?

St Elmo took the brunt of the Ottoman assault and fell on 23 June 1565, yet the forts across the harbour held and the invaders sailed home that September.

Napoleon seized Malta from the Knights in 1798 while sailing to invade which country?

Egypt was the goal: the Knights gave up Malta within days, Napoleon abolished slavery and noble privileges there, and the Maltese rose against the garrison he left behind within three months.

British rule over Malta was confirmed by an 1814 peace treaty with France, signed in which city?

Paris settled what an earlier peace could not: the 1802 Treaty of Amiens had told Britain to hand Malta back to the Knights, and its refusal helped restart the war with Napoleon.

Which award did the British king give to the whole island of Malta in April 1942?

The George Cross went to the whole island on 15 April 1942, when Axis bombers were striking it round the clock, and a picture of the medal has sat on Malta's flag since 1943.

Which two colours form the vertical halves of Malta's national flag?

White and red: the wartime medal in the corner first sat on a blue square, which was dropped at independence in 1964 in favour of a thin red outline.

On independence in 1964, Malta joined which international association?

The Commonwealth took Malta in on independence day, 21 September 1964, and Elizabeth II stayed on as Queen of Malta for ten more years until the islands became a republic.

Which prime minister led Malta to declare itself a republic in 1974?

Dom Mintoff, prime minister from 1971 to 1984, made Malta a republic on 13 December 1974 and saw the last British forces leave in 1979, an exit still marked each 31 March as Freedom Day.

Which two leaders held the 1989 Malta summit that heralded the Cold War's end?

George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev met on ships off Marsaxlokk weeks after the Berlin Wall opened, and storms that cancelled sessions earned the talks the nickname 'the Seasick Summit'.

Which country joined the European Union on the same day as Malta?

Cyprus joined on 1 May 2004 with Malta and eight states of central and eastern Europe, and the two islands went on to adopt the euro on the same day in 2008.

What was Malta's currency before the euro?

The Maltese lira, which many English speakers went on calling the pound, was worth more than two euros when the single currency replaced it on 1 January 2008.

What symbol appears on Malta's €1 and €2 coins?

The Maltese cross, the eight-pointed emblem of the Knights, won a public vote to appear on the 1 and 2 euro coins, while a prehistoric temple altar took the three smallest ones.

The highest point in the Maltese islands, only about 250 metres up, stands on which stretch of coast?

Dingli Cliffs hold the country's highest point at just 253 m, which is lower than the Eiffel Tower, and the islands have no permanent rivers or lakes.

Malta is the smallest country in the European Union by area; which member state is the next smallest?

Luxembourg comes next, yet it is about eight times the size of Malta, whose 316 sq km are home to more than half a million people.

Which hilltop city was Malta's capital in ancient and medieval times?

Mdina sat safely inland on its hill, but the seafaring Knights chose a base beside the harbour instead, and the old capital slipped into a long decline.

On which tectonic plate does Malta sit?

African is the plate: Malta is the exposed top of the Pelagian Platform, a shelf of the African plate that formed a land bridge between Sicily and North Africa before sea levels rose.

Malta is one of only three European Union countries that drive on the left; which of these is another?

Ireland, like Malta, kept the habit from its years under British rule; Sweden drove on the left too until one Sunday in 1967, when the whole country switched sides overnight.

The traditional Maltese fenkata is a meal centred on which meat?

Rabbit is the centrepiece of a fenkata, a communal feast that can run from spaghetti in rabbit sauce to the stew itself, a dish that may have begun as defiance of the Knights' hunting restrictions.

Pastizzi, Malta's favourite pastry snack, are traditionally filled with ricotta or what?

Curried peas (piżelli) are the other classic filling, and the snack is so loved that Maltese say anything in hot demand 'sells like pastizzi', as English speakers say hot cakes.

What is the name of Malta's common local beer?

Cisk owes its name to a banker: Giuseppe Scicluna brought cheques into use in Malta and was nicknamed 'iċ-Ċisk', a local mangling of the word, and his family's brewery launched the lager in 1929.

Girgentina and Ġellewża are Maltese varieties of what?

Grapes: Girgentina is the white and Ġellewża the red of Malta's two native wine varieties, which lost ground once growers planted Chardonnay and other foreign vines; little of their wine ever leaves the islands.

Which painter left The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist in Malta's Conventual Church of St John?

Caravaggio painted The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist in 1608 for the oratory, the only work he ever signed, in the blood spilling from the saint's neck; Mattia Preti later covered the vault in Baroque scenes.

Malta's capital was chosen as the 2018 European Capital of what?

Culture: Malta's capital shared the 2018 title with Leeuwarden in the Netherlands and opened its year with shows staged at once in four of the city's squares.

The Order of Malta is treated as sovereign in international law despite having no what?

Territory went in 1798, when Napoleon drove the Order from Malta, yet from Rome it still issues passports, flies its own flag and exchanges ambassadors with over 100 states.

Which voting system does Malta use to elect its House of Representatives?

Single transferable vote lets Maltese voters rank individual candidates; the system was devised in Britain, which still elects its own House of Commons by first past the post.

Which two parties dominate Maltese politics?

Labour and Nationalist candidates won every seat in parliament for half a century until 2017, in contests so close that the 1996 election, on a 96 per cent turnout, was settled by 8,000 votes.

Which religion does Malta's constitution establish as the state religion?

Catholicism is named in Article 2 of the constitution as the religion of Malta, yet in 2011 voters chose to legalise divorce, which only the Philippines and Vatican City then also banned.

In 2016, Malta became the first European Union country to outlaw what?

Conversion therapy, the attempt to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity, was outlawed in December 2016 by a unanimous vote in parliament, with Malta's psychologists and psychiatrists backing the ban.

Post-war assisted passages carried most Maltese emigrants to which country?

Australia drew far more Maltese than Britain, Canada or the United States, and many who meant to stay only a while to work ended up settling there for good.

In Malta's għana tradition, singers duel in improvised rhyming verse to the sound of which instrument?

Guitar: three guitarists keep the tune going while pairs of singers trade improvised rhymes and put-downs, a contest of wit that UNESCO listed as living heritage in 2021.

In October 2022, what became free for residents of Malta?

Bus travel became free on 1 October 2022 for anyone with a personal Tallinja card, eleven years after Malta retired its vintage buses, a tourist attraction in themselves, for a modern fleet.

Which European language has lent Maltese the most words?

Italian, along with Sicilian, has supplied around half of the Maltese dictionary by some counts, yet the commonest everyday words come from a much older layer of the language.

Which airline became Malta's national carrier on 31 March 2024?

KM Malta Airlines replaced Air Malta the day after the old flag carrier closed; starting a new company let the government fund it afresh, which EU state-aid rules had barred for Air Malta.

One common theory links Malta's ancient Greek name, Melítē, to the Greek word for what?

Honey, meli in Greek, would make Melítē 'the place of honey', perhaps after the island's bees; a rival theory traces the name to a Phoenician word for a haven instead.

Malta International Airport was built on land formerly occupied by which RAF base?

RAF Luqa was already doubling as Malta's civil airport, with a passenger terminal opened in 1958, when the last British forces left in 1979.

Builders broke into which prehistoric Maltese burial site in 1902?

Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum came to light when builders broke through its roof and at first kept quiet, so most of the new houses stood finished above it by the time the find was reported.

What is the popular name of the small clay figure found in Malta's prehistoric underground burial chambers?

The Sleeping Lady lies on her side on a low couch among the dead, and her sleep has been read as death itself or as a rite of sleeping in a holy place to seek dreams.

The island of Comino takes its name from which seed?

Cumin gives the island its name in both English and Maltese, where it is Kemmuna; the Knights later kept it as a hunting reserve for wild boar and hares.

Gozo's Azure Window, lost in 2017, appeared in which TV series?

Game of Thrones staged a Dothraki wedding beside the arch in its first season; the limestone span fell into the sea after a spell of heavy storms in March 2017.

Popeye Village at Anchor Bay was built as the set for a film starring which actor?

Robin Williams played Popeye in Robert Altman's musical, with Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl; the village of wooden buildings was left standing after the shoot and survives as a tourist attraction.

By what nickname is Malta's walled former capital popularly known?

The Silent City is the nickname: the old capital's narrow lanes lie behind bastion walls where almost no cars are allowed and only a few hundred people live, so the streets fall quiet once the day-trippers leave.

The Knights laid out Malta's capital on what kind of street plan?

A grid: the Knights' engineer drew straight streets, a break with the winding alleys of older Maltese towns, reportedly so that sea breezes could cool the city in summer.

Who sent Francesco Laparelli to Malta to plan the Knights' new capital?

The Pope lent the Knights his military engineer after the siege of 1565, and within a week of landing Laparelli was urging them to build a new city.

Which event wrecked the cathedral in Malta's old capital, prompting Lorenzo Gafà's Baroque rebuild?

The 1693 Sicily earthquake, which killed about two-thirds of Catania's people, damaged the medieval cathedral so badly that it was pulled down, and Lorenzo Gafà's Baroque replacement is counted his masterpiece.