The longest history

Revel Barker wrote this for the Independent (London). Via the library of maltavista.ru:

Malta's history is the world's longest, but easy enough to follow. The islands, as ancient continuous cart tracks still show, once formed a land bridge between Sicily and what is now Libya. The oldest manmade structures on the planet (constructed by giant women, according to folklore) are the temples of Ggantija on Gozo. The Phoenicians came here and planted cotton, and the Romans called the place Melita, the Greek word for honey. In AD60, St Paul was shipwrecked on Malta, and as something of a VIP (and Roman citizen) was taken to meet the local governor who he converted and who, in turn, converted the island - thus making it the first Christian country.

Fast-forward to 1530 when the crusading Knights Hospitaller of St John, having lost the Holy Land and then been driven out of Rhodes by Suleiman the Magnificent, grudgingly accepted sovereignty as a gift from the King of Spain. European history tends to overlook the glorious Siege of Malta (1565) during which the Knights learnt the benefit of occupying the high ground and built a new city, named after their grand master, Jean Parisot de la Valette.

Designed on a grid so whichever way the wind was blowing it could benefit from a breeze, Valletta became the world's most beautiful Renaissance city, "built by gentlemen for gentlemen". Though it may be showing its age, it is still one of the most stunning capitals in Europe. It also still bears the scars of a blitz in one five-month period in 1942; Valletta was an easy target from Sicily.