kenb
Bronze Member
Very good article on Malta.
Malta: A journey to the birthplace of the civilised world
The pioneer of lateral thinking, Edward de Bono, has travelled the world, yet still maintains a strong bond with his home, Malta. He tells Andrew Spooner about the rich history of the island – it's like a giant museum
Published: 15 July 2007
To me, Malta is home. I went to school and university there, qualified as a doctor and left for Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship. My early years were dominated by the Second World War; we used to have up to 10 air raids a night. At one point, my family, like many on Malta, dug our own air raid shelter in the back garden. For us, it was an amazing experience because it turned into something of an archaeological dig because we discovered the burial chamber of a noble Roman lady, complete with jewels and other artefacts.
That tells you much about Malta: you dig and you find history. The whole island is like a giant museum, filled with remnants of ancient cultures, and its history is complex.
We were occupied by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Normans, Arabs and the Spanish. Then came the the Knights of Malta who ran the island until the British arrived in the 19th century. It's a long, long history because of our position at the centre of the Mediterranean.
My wartime education was mostly at a boarding school that had to be moved from the often-bombed naval dockyards to the old Arab capital of Mdina. The temporary school we were based at is now a museum attached to a church.
Under the school there were air-raid shelters and passages that connected the boys' and girls' schools. I crafted skeleton keys for each interconnecting door. The older boys who wanted to visit the girls were in hock to me and it obviously gave me a lot of power. It's interesting to look back and think of my undiscovered subterranean "tunnel" now becoming part of the history of Mdina.
One thing I didn't realise when I was younger is that Malta is officially the oldest civilisation in the world. Why?
Well, the oldest structure in the world is the Ggantija Temple, a substantial Stone Age construction built more than 5,500 years ago on the island of Gozo.
"Ggantija" in Maltese means "giant" and the locals called the temple this because they thought only giants could have built it. There are older traces of human activity in the world, such as cave drawings, but a temple signified 10 minutes or so sitting there, absorbing the wisdom of ages.
It is an ancient and very special place. Everyone should travel to Ggantija at least once and spend 10 minutes or so sitting there, absorbing the wisdom of ages.
The underground temple of Hypogeum, on the main island, is also astonishing. It was discovered by accident at the beginning of the 20th century by a farmer digging a well. The site is a cavernous structure, with many different parts, including various religious buildings.
One of the most interesting features is the "oracle", a giant hole cut into the rock probably about 5,000 years ago.
When a man talks into the hole it reverberates with a powerful echo; when a woman talks into the oracle there isn't any echo. The theory is that it was used to tell when a boy became a man. You can go there now and have a go yourself and apparently it works perfectly.
There's even a story that when Margaret Thatcher visited Malta she was taken to the Hypogeum and spoke into the oracle. Everyone stood around waiting expectantly for the echo but it never materialised, "proving" she was a woman.
Another unique aspect of Maltese culture I hold close to my heart are the festas every summer. Each village has its patron saint and marching band, and on the feast day for the saint there are these huge celebrations with fireworks and processions. In some villages, there are two band clubs and they operate in competition with each other to see who can have the most outlandish firework display or feast.
Every weekend, from the end of May until about the beginning of October there are explosions from the fireworks all night.
One theory is that the reason the Maltese coped so well with the bombing in the Second World War was that we were already used to all the noise. We also had considerable experience of sieges.
The Great Siege of 1565, when the Ottoman empire attacked the Knights of Malta failed and they were repulsed by a much smaller force. That also led to the building of Valletta by the Knights.
I think Walter Scott referred to Valletta as "a city built by gentlemen for gentlemen".
The Knights constructed a citadel with huge bastions and ramparts, calling in Italian engineers, I believe.
The Knights were also split into language groups or langues; there were French, Bavarians, Castilians and English-speaking Knights.
Each langue also had its own club house where each nationality of Knight could meet. These were grandiose buildings that still exist: some have been transformed into state palaces and museums.
But the crowning glory of Valletta is St John's Cathedral. This is an enormous Baroque building, with inlaid marble floors, extravagant tombs for the Knights and striking ceiling paintings. The Knights became great builders and much of their efforts survive.
The Knights' rule lasted for several hundred years but ended in 1798 when they surrendered to Napoleon after he passed through Malta en route to Egypt with his expeditionary force.
He stole lots of stuff from the churches – some of which is still in the Louvre – and moved on, leaving behind his administrators and a garrison. Eventually, the Maltese revolted – the only major resistance to Napoleon by an occupied country in Europe – locked up the French and asked the British for aid. In effect, we were never actually conquered or colonised by the British; we actually invited them in and they installed a good legal and education system.
Even these days, despite my constant travelling and apartment in London, Malta is still my official residence.
My house on Malta captures much about the nature of the island. It was built in 1635 by a freed slave woman. Apparently, she was a bit of a racy character and managed to earn enough money to build the house. After she died, the Jesuits occupied the house until they were kicked out of Malta and it fell into private hands and was passed down the line to me.
The island is rightly noted for its great climate – ocean breezes keep it from getting too hot and you never need an overcoat in winter – and an easygoing, friendly population. When I'm on the island the people and sunshine always help me feel immediately relaxed. When I arrive on Malta, I don't make special plans: I just like to go and see friends, hang out and have dinner.
The island is well known for its great seafood and saffat al-fenek, a rabbit stew. It's supposed to be made with wild rabbit but there are very few of those on the island. Maltese wine is very good and I love Maltese bread; I think it is the best bread I've eaten anywhere. A tip: it's supposed to be good for freezing.
The landscape of the island, although not spectacular, has its own character and is filled with fields and tough stone walls. There are dramatic, high cliffs and a few decent beaches – the best can be found at Mellieha and Ghajn Tuffieha – but Malta's outstanding feature is its history. All of its sites are in such a small area. You can go from the Stone Age to the Greeks, Romans and onwards to the Knights and the Baroque period in just a few miles.
Stone Age temples were recently discovered at sea, demonstrating that the Mediterranean must have been much lower. Who knows? Maybe Malta was once a sacred mountain?
Further reading 'Malta: A collection of Tales and Narratives' is published by The Edward de Bono Foundation in Malta
http://travel.independent.co.uk/europe/article2771118.ece
kenb
Malta: A journey to the birthplace of the civilised world
The pioneer of lateral thinking, Edward de Bono, has travelled the world, yet still maintains a strong bond with his home, Malta. He tells Andrew Spooner about the rich history of the island – it's like a giant museum
Published: 15 July 2007
To me, Malta is home. I went to school and university there, qualified as a doctor and left for Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship. My early years were dominated by the Second World War; we used to have up to 10 air raids a night. At one point, my family, like many on Malta, dug our own air raid shelter in the back garden. For us, it was an amazing experience because it turned into something of an archaeological dig because we discovered the burial chamber of a noble Roman lady, complete with jewels and other artefacts.
That tells you much about Malta: you dig and you find history. The whole island is like a giant museum, filled with remnants of ancient cultures, and its history is complex.
We were occupied by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Normans, Arabs and the Spanish. Then came the the Knights of Malta who ran the island until the British arrived in the 19th century. It's a long, long history because of our position at the centre of the Mediterranean.
My wartime education was mostly at a boarding school that had to be moved from the often-bombed naval dockyards to the old Arab capital of Mdina. The temporary school we were based at is now a museum attached to a church.
Under the school there were air-raid shelters and passages that connected the boys' and girls' schools. I crafted skeleton keys for each interconnecting door. The older boys who wanted to visit the girls were in hock to me and it obviously gave me a lot of power. It's interesting to look back and think of my undiscovered subterranean "tunnel" now becoming part of the history of Mdina.
One thing I didn't realise when I was younger is that Malta is officially the oldest civilisation in the world. Why?
Well, the oldest structure in the world is the Ggantija Temple, a substantial Stone Age construction built more than 5,500 years ago on the island of Gozo.
"Ggantija" in Maltese means "giant" and the locals called the temple this because they thought only giants could have built it. There are older traces of human activity in the world, such as cave drawings, but a temple signified 10 minutes or so sitting there, absorbing the wisdom of ages.
It is an ancient and very special place. Everyone should travel to Ggantija at least once and spend 10 minutes or so sitting there, absorbing the wisdom of ages.
The underground temple of Hypogeum, on the main island, is also astonishing. It was discovered by accident at the beginning of the 20th century by a farmer digging a well. The site is a cavernous structure, with many different parts, including various religious buildings.
One of the most interesting features is the "oracle", a giant hole cut into the rock probably about 5,000 years ago.
When a man talks into the hole it reverberates with a powerful echo; when a woman talks into the oracle there isn't any echo. The theory is that it was used to tell when a boy became a man. You can go there now and have a go yourself and apparently it works perfectly.
There's even a story that when Margaret Thatcher visited Malta she was taken to the Hypogeum and spoke into the oracle. Everyone stood around waiting expectantly for the echo but it never materialised, "proving" she was a woman.
Another unique aspect of Maltese culture I hold close to my heart are the festas every summer. Each village has its patron saint and marching band, and on the feast day for the saint there are these huge celebrations with fireworks and processions. In some villages, there are two band clubs and they operate in competition with each other to see who can have the most outlandish firework display or feast.
Every weekend, from the end of May until about the beginning of October there are explosions from the fireworks all night.
One theory is that the reason the Maltese coped so well with the bombing in the Second World War was that we were already used to all the noise. We also had considerable experience of sieges.
The Great Siege of 1565, when the Ottoman empire attacked the Knights of Malta failed and they were repulsed by a much smaller force. That also led to the building of Valletta by the Knights.
I think Walter Scott referred to Valletta as "a city built by gentlemen for gentlemen".
The Knights constructed a citadel with huge bastions and ramparts, calling in Italian engineers, I believe.
The Knights were also split into language groups or langues; there were French, Bavarians, Castilians and English-speaking Knights.
Each langue also had its own club house where each nationality of Knight could meet. These were grandiose buildings that still exist: some have been transformed into state palaces and museums.
But the crowning glory of Valletta is St John's Cathedral. This is an enormous Baroque building, with inlaid marble floors, extravagant tombs for the Knights and striking ceiling paintings. The Knights became great builders and much of their efforts survive.
The Knights' rule lasted for several hundred years but ended in 1798 when they surrendered to Napoleon after he passed through Malta en route to Egypt with his expeditionary force.
He stole lots of stuff from the churches – some of which is still in the Louvre – and moved on, leaving behind his administrators and a garrison. Eventually, the Maltese revolted – the only major resistance to Napoleon by an occupied country in Europe – locked up the French and asked the British for aid. In effect, we were never actually conquered or colonised by the British; we actually invited them in and they installed a good legal and education system.
Even these days, despite my constant travelling and apartment in London, Malta is still my official residence.
My house on Malta captures much about the nature of the island. It was built in 1635 by a freed slave woman. Apparently, she was a bit of a racy character and managed to earn enough money to build the house. After she died, the Jesuits occupied the house until they were kicked out of Malta and it fell into private hands and was passed down the line to me.
The island is rightly noted for its great climate – ocean breezes keep it from getting too hot and you never need an overcoat in winter – and an easygoing, friendly population. When I'm on the island the people and sunshine always help me feel immediately relaxed. When I arrive on Malta, I don't make special plans: I just like to go and see friends, hang out and have dinner.
The island is well known for its great seafood and saffat al-fenek, a rabbit stew. It's supposed to be made with wild rabbit but there are very few of those on the island. Maltese wine is very good and I love Maltese bread; I think it is the best bread I've eaten anywhere. A tip: it's supposed to be good for freezing.
The landscape of the island, although not spectacular, has its own character and is filled with fields and tough stone walls. There are dramatic, high cliffs and a few decent beaches – the best can be found at Mellieha and Ghajn Tuffieha – but Malta's outstanding feature is its history. All of its sites are in such a small area. You can go from the Stone Age to the Greeks, Romans and onwards to the Knights and the Baroque period in just a few miles.
Stone Age temples were recently discovered at sea, demonstrating that the Mediterranean must have been much lower. Who knows? Maybe Malta was once a sacred mountain?
Further reading 'Malta: A collection of Tales and Narratives' is published by The Edward de Bono Foundation in Malta
http://travel.independent.co.uk/europe/article2771118.ece
kenb
