The Republic of Malta is a small and densely populated island nation in southern Europe . It consists of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea directly south of Italy . The Maltese archipelago consists of three islands: Malta , Gozo and Comino. Malta , the largest island, is 237 sq. kms in area; Gozo is 68 sq. kms and Comino, 2 sq. kms. Malta lies about 60 miles (97km) south of Sicily and 160 miles (257km) north of Libya, a strategic position in the Mediterranean that has made the islands a crossroads of history. The last occupiers were the British, who granted Malta independence in 1964, but the biggest and most unique influence was left by the Knights of St John, to whom the island was donated in 1530; the Knights reigned supreme over the island for 270 years, building magnificent churches and monuments to themselves.

The first known people to settle in Malta were the Phoenicians, who reached these shores on their trading ventures in the 9th century BC. They were succeeded by their Punic kinsmen, the Carthaginians, who were eventually conquered by the Romans in the 3rd century BC. The Romans governed these islands until the division of the Roman Empire in the 4th century AD. Malta is very good at selling its romantic past of Copper Age temple builders and crusading celibate knights, and it has used this image to crank up a formidable tourism industry. Not that the islands are overrun with highrise resorts - yet.

Malta has its mysteries too, in the form of 30 prehistoric sites boasting massive Neolithic temples, considered to be the oldest freestanding stone buildings known to man.