At a glance
- Role: Main island of the Maltese archipelago
- Known for: Megalithic temples, fortified cities, maritime history
- Language: Maltese (Semitic roots with Romance influence) and English
- Landscape: Limestone plateaus, harbours, cliffs, bays
How to use this guide
- Read Malta’s history in chronological sections below
- Use eMalta.com location pages to explore towns and sites
Geography and identity
Malta’s identity is inseparable from its geography: a strategically placed island in the central Mediterranean, defined by natural harbours, a rugged coastline, and limestone landscapes that made both fortification and stone-building a natural part of daily life for millennia.
Malta’s story is best understood as a sequence of “layers”: each era reused and reshaped what came before — roads, sacred sites, defensive lines, and even place-names.
Prehistory: the Temple Period and early society
Malta is internationally significant for its prehistoric remains, including some of the world’s oldest free-standing stone monuments. Early Neolithic settlers arrived by sea and established agricultural communities. Over centuries, they developed a complex ritual and architectural tradition that culminated in the Temple Period.
Megalithic temples and the ritual landscape
Sites such as Ħaġar Qim, Mnajdra, Tarxien and others reveal sophisticated stone engineering, planning, and symbolic culture. These places were not isolated buildings: they were part of a wider ritual landscape tied to seasonal cycles, community identity, and controlled access to sacred space.
Transition and continuity
Malta’s prehistoric record includes later Bronze Age phases that reoriented settlement and defensive choices, leaving traces across the island in smaller sites, tool traditions and field patterns.
Phoenicians and Carthaginians: Malta enters Mediterranean trade networks
By the first millennium BC, Malta became integrated into Phoenician maritime networks. The island functioned as a strategic stop and trading node, helping connect the central Mediterranean with wider routes.
Carthaginian influence followed, continuing Malta’s role as a maritime outpost with a mixed economy based on trade, seafaring and agriculture.
Roman Malta: towns, estates and early Christianity
Under Roman rule, Malta developed as a prosperous province with towns, villas and agricultural estates. Roman-era material culture and building practices contributed to a long tradition of urban settlement.
Malta is also strongly associated with early Christianity through long-standing traditions connected to St Paul’s shipwreck and the gradual Christianisation of the island across late antiquity.
Medieval Malta and Arab influence
Arab rule (from the late 9th century) profoundly shaped Malta’s language, agriculture and settlement patterns. The Maltese language retains a Semitic foundation with later influences, reflecting Malta’s layered history.
After the Norman reconquest, Malta became part of the Kingdom of Sicily. Medieval urban life reorganised around fortified centres, with Mdina and the surrounding district forming a political and administrative core.
The Knights of St John: fortresses, cities and a new Malta
The arrival of the Order of St John (1530) was a turning point. The Knights transformed Malta into a major defensive stronghold, building fortifications, harbours and institutions that still define the island’s cultural landscape.
The Great Siege and the rise of Valletta
The Great Siege of 1565 became a defining event in Malta’s collective memory, followed by an ambitious rebuilding programme. Valletta emerged as a planned fortress-capital, designed for defence, administration, and symbolic authority.
Baroque Malta and parish life
From the 16th to 18th centuries, Malta’s parish system expanded and village centres were reshaped by church-building, feast culture, confraternities, and the craft economy supporting stonework, woodcarving and painting.
French episode and British period
French occupation (1798–1800) was brief but disruptive. After local resistance and the wider geopolitical context, Malta transitioned into the British sphere and became a strategically important naval base.
The British period (19th–20th centuries) introduced new administrative structures, education reforms, and infrastructure, while Malta’s harbours and dockyards shaped modern urban growth and labour history.
Modern Malta: independence, republic and contemporary identity
Malta’s modern era includes independence, state-building and a fast-changing economy. Tourism, services and heritage conservation are central, while local identity continues to express itself through language, festa culture, music, food, and neighbourhood life.
Modern Malta also grapples with the balance between development and preservation—especially in historic cores and coastal zones, where the pressure on land and heritage can be intense.
Why Malta matters
Malta is a microcosm of Mediterranean history: a small island with an outsized role in trade, defence, religion and cultural exchange. Its significance lies not only in monuments, but in continuity—how past and present remain visible in stone, language, and everyday life.