Fun Facts
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- There’s a church on this tiny island chain for nearly each day of the year… with 359 churches, this strongly religious country won’t ever leave you lost for a house of worship. It’s little wonder the country is so staunchly Catholic, according to the Bible, St. Paul was shipwrecked in Malta and converted its inhabitants to Catholicism in 60 AD.
- Although the origin of the name Malta isn’t certain, it’s suggested that the ancient Greeks called the island Melite (honey-sweet), with voyagers from Greece possibly referring to the country’s unique production of honey, thanks to an endemic species of bees found in Malta.
- The remains of the Megalithic temples that Malta is known for are the oldest free-standing stone structures in the world—older than Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt.
- Cars really rule the road here. With over 397,000 vehicles registered in Malta (2019) for a population of merely 493,000, the ratio of cars to people is practically one-to-one for those of driving age. Typically, every member of a household owns their own car, and considering the small road network on these small islands, traffic can get bad…
- Small as it is, the island is an attractive destination for big budget movies, with major blockbuster productions shooting around the islands. Scenes in movies like Gladiator, World War Z, and Captain Philips, as well as TV series like Game of Thrones, were filmed here.