Thursday, January 18, 2007

Fort Manuel, Malta





This time last year..... I was in Malta. Here are some holiday snaps... Different views than you get from the Malta Tourism Board!

Fort Manuel is now totally disused. It is situated on a little island to the west of Valetta...not the Grand Harbour, but the one to the west. It is overlooked by Valetta, so it really was not so useful as all that. After the Napoleonic Wars, it was turned into a hospital for highly contagious diseases, so you can imagine it has a lot of ghosts floating around it. I imagine the developers would give their eyeteeth to have the land to stick a hotel on it!

These pictures were taken mostly from the walls of the city of Valetta, though the bottom one is from a boat. As you can see, the walls are VERY thick, and broad at the top.
The very top pic is of the entrance to the harbour. You can see all the building going on...which will change the whole skyline. However, in the long run, the Maltese habit of putting all the tourists in the same place (like Miami!) will pay off in less urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is a very hot topic in Malta...the entire Island would be built over if the developers had their way!


1 comment:

Jennifer said...

I remember your post last year. I'm glad the good people of Malta are doing what they can to keep sprawl to a minimum. Such a gorgeous place. Maybe I'll go someday.