MdinaMdina (L-Imdina lɪmˈdiːnɐ; Maleṭ; Melíttē; Madīnah; Medina), also known by its Italian-language titles Città Vecchia ("Old City") and Città Notabile ("Notable City"), is a fortified city in the Northern Region of Malta which served as the island's capital from antiquity to the medieval period. The city is still confined within its walls, and has a population of just under 100, but it is contiguous with the town of Rabat, which takes its name from the Arabic word for suburb, and has a population of over 11,000 (as of March 2014).
Malta (island)Malta is an island in Southern Europe. It is the largest and most populous of the three major islands that constitute the Maltese Archipelago. The island is situated in the Mediterranean Sea, directly south of Italy and north of Libya. Lying to the south-east of the smaller islands of Gozo and Comino, it is sometimes referred to as Valletta for statistical purposes to distinguish the main island from the entire country. The island is long and wide, with a total area of . The capital is Valletta, while the largest locality is Rabat.
History of MaltaMalta has a long history and was first inhabited in around 5900 BC. The first inhabitants were farmers, and their agricultural methods degraded the soil until the islands became uninhabitable. The islands were repopulated around 3850 BC by a civilization which at its peak built the Megalithic Temples, which today are among the oldest surviving buildings in the world. Their civilization collapsed in around 2350 BC, but the islands were repopulated by Bronze Age warriors soon afterwards.
MellieħaMellieħa (il-Mellieħa ɪl mɛˈlːɪːħɐ) is a large village in the Northern Region of Malta. It has a population of 10,087 as of March 2014. Mellieħa is also a tourist resort, popular for its sandy beaches, natural environment, and Popeye Village nearby. The name Mellieħa is derived from the Semitic root m-l-ħ, which means salt. This is probably derived from the ancient Punic-Roman salt pans which existed at Mellieħa Bay. The site of the salt pans is now occupied by the Għadira Nature Reserve.
Knights HospitallerThe Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (ˈhɒspᵻtələr), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was founded in the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there until 1291, thereafter being based in Kolossi Castle in Cyprus (1302–1310), the island of Rhodes (1310–1522), Malta (1530–1798), and Saint Petersburg (1799–1801).
VallettaValletta (vəˈlɛtə, il-Belt Valletta, vɐˈlːɛtːɐ) is an administrative unit and the capital of Malta. Located on the main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, its population within administrative limits in 2014 was 6,444. According to the data from 2020 by Eurostat, the Functional Urban Area and metropolitan region covered the whole island and has a population of 480,134. Valletta is the southernmost capital of Europe, and at just , it is the European Union's smallest capital city.
MaltaMalta (ˈmɒltə , ˈmɔːltə , ˈmɐːltɐ), officially the Republic of Malta (Repubblika ta' Malta rɛˈpʊbːlɪkɐ tɐ ˈmɐːltɐ), is an island country in Southern Europe, located in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya. It lies south of Sicily (Italy), east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The official languages are Maltese and English, and 66% of the current Maltese population is at least conversant in the Italian language. Malta has been inhabited since approximately 5900 BC.
Kingdom of SicilyThe Kingdom of Sicily (Regnum Siciliae; Regno di Sicilia; Regnu di Sicilia) was a state that existed in the south of the Italian Peninsula and for a time the region of Ifriqiya from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 until 1816. It was a successor state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of the southern peninsula. The island was divided into three regions: Val di Mazara, Val Demone and Val di Noto.
Maltese languageMaltese (Malti, also L-Ilsien Malti or Il-Lingwa Maltija) is a Semitic language derived from late medieval Sicilian Arabic with Romance superstrata spoken by the Maltese people. It is the national language of Malta and the only official Semitic and Afro-Asiatic language of the European Union. Maltese is a Latinised variety of spoken historical Arabic through its descent from Siculo-Arabic, which developed as a Maghrebi Arabic dialect in the Emirate of Sicily between 831 and 1091.
LibyaLibya (ˈlɪbiə ; Lībiyā, liː.bi.jæː), officially the State of Libya (Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad to the south, Niger to the southwest, Algeria to the west, and Tunisia to the northwest. Libya is made of three historical regions: Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica. With an area of almost , it is the fourth-largest country in Africa and the Arab world, and the 16th-largest in the world.
