'Mythic Malta'

Jessica Lim describes Malta as a 'strange little island nation with its narrow cobblestone streets, medieval dungeons and baroque palaces' that stirs up romantic notions in the author. From Malaysia's New Straits Times:

For about three hours during hot summer afternoons, Malta shuts down for a nationwide siesta. There are a few Maltese cats guarding their sleeping owners’ front doors and some old men drinking under shady olive trees. But everything else is still, and the fact that you’re standing on 7,000 years of history creeps up on you deliciously. In fact, it wouldn’t seem out of place at all if Russell Crowe himself, clad in that sexy metal skirt that won him an Academy Award in 2000, showed up on a snorting armoured horse shouting, “At my signal, unleash hell!”

You may not have heard of Malta but chances are, you’ve glimpsed parts of it in one of these movies: Gladiator, Troy, The Count of Monte Cristo, Cutthroat Island, Troy, U-571, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Alexander. Even the great original classic Popeye was filmed here. With craggy, unspoiled cliffs and deep blue seas, narrow cobblestone streets lined with towering limestone fortresses dating back to the 1600s, Malta is perfect for movies that need that kind of ancient feel..

There isn’t much colour breaking the monotone landscape of brown shops, brown houses, steep brown streets, brown fields, brown horses and brown, brown bodies tanning on the beach. Every building is made out of the same material — Horlicks-coloured, rectangular limestone slabs, which is Malta’s only natural resource besides salt. To make up for this lack of colour, building owners invest their creative energy frenetically on their door knockers. You’ve never seen anything like it. Ornate kissing fish, lions, eagles, gods and goddesses, snakes and dragons, all fancifully wrought, then burnished to sparkling perfection...