Malta and the Knights...

Port of Valletta and castle
and yachts!

Cute carriages for tourists.

Main gate and bridge over
moat to Mdina

We'd been here before -- Malta and all the romance of the Knights of Malta, the Hospitaliers, the Crusades, etc.  But it was a beautiful chilly sunny day and maybe that is why it made a difference.  In any case, we fell in love with Malta.  You may not know where Malta is, especially if you live in the Midwest.  It seems too far away and too foreign to care!

Church and square inside Mdina

Plazza in Mdina

But the story is interesting.  You see, it wraps up the entire Ottoman (read:Turkish) empire, the Crusades, those pesky Knights who seemed to be everywhere in the Dark Ages.  All the drama of a good movie really.  You see, the Knights that were left after the bloody crusades (most of them had disbanded and straggled back to wherever they had been from!) had decided to stay on the island of Rhodes. They were a ragtag group, some of whom did have some booty from their efforts, but they were sick and tired of being chased off places by Suleiman the Magnificent. You see, he was a pretty impressive and fearsome figure. He wore this cone type hat that was really really really high and left me wondering how he kept it on his head at all! And he had, after all, an EMPIRE with armies, navies, and lots of riches.  His name alone was enough to scare entire countries!  Sulieman had chased those Knights away from Jerusalem, from Constantinople, from Greece and they had settled down contentedly on little Rhodes, off the coast of Greece, with their booty from the wars.  They were happy.  But Suleiman was NOT!  So he got his ships and his soldiers together and chased them off Rhodes as well.  Where to go??  Where to go??!!  They sailed away, with their fake armor on and their real armor stashed in the hold, and ended up about as far away as they could imagine -- to the northern coast of Africa off a little group of 3 islands called Malta.  It seemed to be far enough away and lo and behold, it was the perfect location for the Knights to go into business.  You see, Malta is the gateway to the Mediterranean Sea -- 60 miles from Sicily and 90 miles from Africa.  Right there in the middle.  Perfect for stopping shipping boats and collecting cash money or goods in order to let the boats go past.  Sounds a little like pirates, but really legal army-like pirates!

Plazza inside Mdina

Maltese balconies, common

And, tucked into their new home,they were NOT going to let Suleiman or anyone else take it away.  So they built a formidle castle around the entire edge of the island.  That's right.  All around the edge of the island.  So Suleiman would be so impressed and scared he would stay away for good! And then they proceeded to built castle-like homes inside the Big Outside Castle. Big enough and impressive enough to  impress each other and those occasional visitors to the island.  And, because they were supposed to be Knights that did good, they built hospitals and called themselves Hospitaliers to take care of all those Knights/soldiers who were injured!  And, with the warm Mediterranean winds blowing, and the fortress like protection, people began to migrate there and build homes and apartments. And now, amidst all the fallderol of past crusades and Knights, there are tourists, high rises, and yet charm that includes cultures from Italy, Spain, Africa, Middle East, etc etc.  They even have their own language, made up of words from all those cultures, although the residents mosty speak English.

It surprised me that, as close to Africa as we were, the culture and the people all looked "English."  And, with all the uprisings in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, etc, there were not more refugees from those areas.  When asked, our tour guide said they are very careful to keep their borders closed -- it must be those forbiding castle walls surrounding the island, with the spectre of Suleiman and his hat always threatening.

Maltese Cross

Maltese cross again

And Again