Malta (island)

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Malta
Malta satellite image
Waters	Mediterranean Sea
Archipelago	Maltese islands
Geographical location	35 ° 53 '  N , 14 ° 27'  E Coordinates: 35 ° 53 '  N , 14 ° 27'  E
length	27 km
surface	246 km²
Highest elevation	Ta 'Dmejrek 253  m
Residents	436,947 (2016) 1776 inhabitants / km²
main place	Valletta

Malta is the largest island in the Malta archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea and the name given to the state of Malta .

geography

The island is 246 square kilometers, the furthest stretch from one point on the coast to another is 27 kilometers, and the coastal fringes are 136 kilometers. Sicily is about 100 kilometers north, while the nearest African coast ( Tunisia ) is between 290 and 300 kilometers away. The islands of Comino and Gozo, which are also inhabited in the Malta archipelago, are two and six kilometers off the northwest coast of Malta. About 357,000 inhabitants live on the island of Malta, which is 90 percent of the total population of the state.

geology

The subsurface consists mainly of Oligocene and Miocene limestones . The island juts out of the Mediterranean as a sloping clod , lifted up by the tectonic deformation of the earth's mantle from the late Miocene onwards . In the southwest, a height of 253 meters is reached, while the plateau flattens out in the opposite direction. The coast is characterized by deep bays. Because of the porous limestone, no rivers have formed in Malta.

nature

Because of the scarcity of water, the island's vegetation is not very rich. The forests that still existed in the early days were cut down in the Bronze Age , partly to gain building material or to make space for agricultural crops. Since attempts at cultivation failed again and again, the soil was more and more exposed to erosion and increasingly karstified. Agriculture therefore plays only a subordinate role on the island of Malta. After the Second World War , the vegetation was revitalized by planting olive and eucalyptus trees and pines . Otherwise, the island floor is covered with undemanding shrubs such as thyme , rosemary and hard grasses.

Due to the barren vegetation, only a few animal species can be found on the island of Malta. The wild rabbits make up the majority of the mammals . Reptiles such as lizards are widespread . Malta is an important transit point for migratory birds. It is estimated that nearly two million songbirds, birds of prey and herons stop in Malta every year on their way to Africa. Native bird species such as thrushes , swallows and shearwaters , on the other hand, are much less common.

history

Malta played a major strategic role in World War II, as it was an important stopover on the British sea connection between Gibraltar , the Suez Canal and on to India. At the same time, the Italian and German supply routes for the war in North Africa could be effectively disrupted from here. Mussolini and Hitler therefore agreed in April 1942 to conquer Malta by airborne troops in order to then advance further into Egypt in North Africa. Due to military setbacks by the Axis powers in North Africa, this project did not take place.

Others

The Malta Plateau , a plateau in East Antarctica, Victoria Land, is named after the island .

literature

• Neville Ransley, Anton Azzopardi: A Geography of the Maltese Islands. 4th edition. Malta 1988.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. Joe Zammit Ciantar: The Names of the Town and Villages of Gozo (Malta). P. 80
2. ↑ The Great Ploetz . Freiburg 2008, p. 820.