Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, The Maltese archipelago consists of five small islands having a combined area of 316 square kilometres. Their strategic, central position and superb natural harbours have attracted the interest of settlers and great nations alike. Out of the mists of recorded history, the prehistoric stone temples of Hagar Qim and Ggantija bear mute witness to successive waves of colonisation. With the ebb and flow of time, the islands were in turn home to Sicilian migrants, Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Castillians, and Spanish. Legend even has it that Ulysses was seduced by the nymph Calypso on the island of Gozo. In the year 60 AD another seafarer was to find safe haven on these shores. Even then, as St. Paul relates, the inhabitants received him with "uncommon kindness". Yet it was to be the ceding of these Islands by Spain to the Knights of the Order of St. John that was to usher in the next and most glorious moment in Malta's history.

After an impressive victory over the Ottoman Turks in 1565, the Island was endowed with some of the finest examples of architecture and fortifications in the world. The time of the knights was to last for 270 years, following which the Islands fell to the forces of Napoleon Bonaparte. Two years of unrest ushered in the arrival of British rule. Now began a long, sometimes strained, yet always close, relationship that endures to the present day. With Britain, Malta was to fight the Second World War, earning the praise and admiration of the world. The red and white Maltese flag still proudly depicts the George Cross for bravery beyond the call of duty; the only time a nation as a whole has received this award. After independence, in 1964, the economy moved from that of a military base to one based on tourism and light industry. The proclamation of the Island as a republic in 1974 followed by the formal departure of British troops in 1979 bring us to the present day.

Blessed with a warm climate and a highly adaptable, multi-talented workforce, Malta now attracts invaders of a most welcome sort - investors, European companies, high-tech light industry and over one million tourists each year. The last 20 years have seen the Islands make the transition to a forward looking, thoroughly modern country, still retaining its blend of Mediterranean culture, language, history and religion.