Malta - Vestiges of
invasions and views of the sea
The sun was hot as I lay
poolside. I had just finished the Malta triathlon, with a friend, and he
was asleep next to his girlfriend one lounge chair over. My legs hurt. I
nursed my gin and tonic and it nursed me.
Around us was evidence of invasions. Armies from almost all regional
powers that ever flourished near the Mediterranean besieged Malta at
some point, including the Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines, Islamic
armies and the French. These days, it is battalions of tourists. We were
surrounded by flabby tourists showing too much flesh. I looked up at the
blue sky and concentrated on my drink.
We had decided to add a
few days on to our trip after the triathlon, and, like our recovering
legs, Malta kept getting better. Once we were able to move from our
lounge chairs at our hotel in the package-tour town of Bugibba, we
decamped to a wonderful little hotel, the Juliani, which opened this
year in St. Julian’s, al lively town close to Valletta. The stylish
hobby leads to cozy rooms, and when the staff turns down the bed they
leave delicious little almond cookies on the bedstand. There is a pool
on the roof that had a great view of the Spinola Bay.
Colorful fishing boats fill the harbor, and the bay is ringed with
outdoor cafés and restaurants. Menus feature fresh fish and the Italian
and North African culinary influences make the most of it.
Malta joined the European Union in May (2004). Any country in Europe
with reliably and warm and sunny weather is worth a closer look, and
Malta, as one of the southernmost countries in the European Union,
certainly fits the bill. It is made up of three small inhabited islands
in the middle of the Mediterranean, between Sicily (Italy) and the North African
coast. It is also a tiny and crowded nation, with 400,000 people on 316
square kilometers, on 122 square miles.
We rented a car and plunged into Maltese traffic. The island is spidered
with narrow roads, and on hills and exit ramps around Valletta many of
them are hemmed in by shoulder-high walls. It makes you feel like an
unwitting participant in a motorized luge competition, but a car is
vital for exploring the best parts of the island.
Malta has the oldest freestanding man-made structures in the world by a
long shot. At Tarxien, Ggantija, Xaghra, temple structures date as far
as 3600 B.C. To put that in perspective, the pyramids of
Egypt were
built around 2500 B.C, and Stonehenge dates to roughly 2000 B.C. I stood
within the simple, weathered stone walls and contemplated how different
the world was when they were built, two million sunrises ago. At Hagar
Qim, I watched the sun set behind the enormous boulders that
archaeologists believe were built in accordance with the solar
solstices.
How the ancient architects moved the 20 ton boulders into place remains
a mystery, but they had no shortage of building material. Rock is
ubiquitous and the native beige stone is used for almost everything,
including houses, roads and fences. It lends Maltese towns a wonderful
air of weathered permanence.
The most impressive display of rocks are the ones hewn by nature. One
day we took a ferry to Gozo, a small island north of Malta, and drove
along its coastline. At Dwerja, waves crashed against vertical cliffs.
Off to my right, an enormous stone arch jutted into the water. Crabs
skittered sideways on rock shelves just above the water line. I put on
my googles and jumped into the warm water. I hung beneath the surface
and watched fish swim by, silvered by sunlight. Underwater caves receded
into darkness. Nearby, scuba divers descended into an underwater feature
known as the blue hole. It drops 25 meters, or 82 feet, along sheer
walls, and connects to the sea through an underwater arch created
through millennia of ocean tides.
The sea has shaped more than just the Maltese coastline. Foreign navies
have invaded the island for thousands of years, and the people and
culture of Malta have been shaped by the failed attacks as much as it
has by those that were successful. The most famous defense of the island
was in 1565, when the Ottoman empire invaded. At one point, hoping to
intimidate the locals, the Turks killed captured prisoners, nailed their
decapitated bodies to makeshift crucifixes and sent them across the bay
on rafts. The locals, unimpressed, killed Turkish prisoners of war and
used their heads as cannonballs to fire back.
The locals won. It remains a heroic victory for the Maltese, and they
later named the country’s capital after their leader, Jean Parisot de la
Vallette.
This often violent history has left impressive traces across the
country. The port areas of Valletta are steep with defensive walls, and
fortresses and barricades dot the island. In Victoria, the main city on
Gozo, steep walls flank the fortress at the center of the city. Walking
through the narrow, rock-cobbled streets makes for a great afternoon,
but the defensive posture that the locals had to maintain is vivid at
every turn.
As we lifted into the sky, I watched the crevassed western coastline,
with its high vertical cliffs, appear to float on the sea like a
stenciled jigsaw-puzzle piece. Just a tiny piece in a large mosaic and
an even larger ocean, I realized, as Malta disappeared and an expanse of
sea filled my view.
Otto Pohl
Kathmandu Post 28-11-2004, derived from the International Herald Tribune
