Page updated 13 September 2013
This page includes information about Malta and has links to the "Visit Malta" website and Malta's Airport
Malta is an archipelago in the central Mediterranean (in its eastern basin), some 80 km south of the Italian island of Sicily across the Malta Channel. Only the three largest islands – Malta, Gozo, and Comino – are inhabited.
Malta's location has given it great strategic importance throughout history and a succession of powers including the Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Habsburg Spain, Knights of St John, French and the British ruled the islands. Malta gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1964 and became a republic in 1974. Malta was admitted to the United Nations in 1964 and to the European Union in 2004; in 2008, it became part of the Eurozone.
Malta is a favoured tourist destination with its warm climate, numerous recreational areas, architectural and historical monuments, including three UNESCO World Heritage Sites most prominently the Megalithic Temples which are some of the oldest free-standing structures in the world.
Malta's weather and climate are strongly influenced by the sea and have a very characteristic Mediterranean flavour, similar to that found in southern Italy or southern Greece. The climate is typically Mediterranean, with hot, dry summers, warm and sporadically wet autumns, and short, cool winters with adequate rainfall. Nearly three-fourths of the total annual rainfall of about 600 millimetres (24 inches) falls between October and March. The mean maximum temperature in March is 17°C and the mean overnight minimum is 10°C
Official site of Malta : http://www.visitmalta.com/
Malta International airport website: http://www.maltairport.com/en/home.htm
Includes a listing of operational airline carriers