(CNN) -- Whoever came up with the phrase "location is everything" when it comes to real estate must have had Malta in mind.





This tiny island nation sits in the middle of the Mediterranean, about 60 miles south of Sicily and 180 miles east of the African coast at Tunisia. The result is that anyone who was anyone visited, settled, invaded or conquered this prime piece of land. And with each leaving their mark, a visit to Malta is truly a journey through the region's history.





The Republic of Malta is actually three islands. The country's name comes from the largest of the three; to the northwest of that is Gozo, and in between them is Comino. And tiny really means tiny. At only 122 square miles (316 square kilometers), the total area of the country is about one-tenth the size of Rhode Island, by far the smallest of the United States.





London, New York, Tokyo -- each of these metropolitan areas is bigger than Malta. That compactness, coupled with an extensive bus system, lets you see the best of what it has to offer with ease.





Begin your journey through the millennia with the stone temples at Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, on the southern coast. Construction on these sites started around 3600 BC, making them centuries older than the best guesses we have for England's Stonehenge.





And the temples are every bit as mysterious, since it is not clear how or why they were built. The structures aren't as massive as their English counterpart, and they lack the graceful symmetry. Yet walk among the exposed chambers -- with the sea just beyond the cliffs -- and you know that the generations who built these temples believed they were constructing something for the ages.





It is here that you start to get a sense of what sets a journey to Malta apart from Europe's more visited travel destinations. Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra are just two of seven ancient temples that make up a UNESCO World Heritage site described by a leading prehistorian as "the oldest free-standing monuments in the world." These sites represent just one epoch of many you will find on your trip.





Travel seven miles (11 kilometers) to the east -- and skip forward more than 2,000 years from the time the stones for those temples were laid -- and you will be standing where the first seafaring Phoenicians arrived on Malta from the eastern end of the Mediterranean.





To this day the village of Marsaxlokk is a key port for the country's fishing industry, seen in the market held every Sunday and in the seafood restaurants lining the harbor. But look closely at the colorfully painted traditional fishing boats known as luzzu bobbing gently on the water, and you can't help but notice how they are still painted with the Eye of Osiris, a custom said to have been handed down by the Phoenicians to ward off evil.





From Marsaxlokk head northwest 10 miles (16 kilometers) inland toward the walled city of Mdina, which sits on one of the highest plateaus on the island. Just outside the main gate of this walled city is the Domus Romana, or "Roman house." Here we have moved forward another thousand years to when Malta was part of the Roman Republic.





The Roman House is a museum built on the excavated ruins of a nobleman's home, dating back to sometime shortly after 100 B.C. While the museum on the main floor houses a respectable collection of artifacts, it is the excavated floors of the villa -- among the finest mosaics uncovered anywhere in the former empire -- that will astonish you.





As for Mdina itself, the city's name comes from the Arabic word simply meaning "the city," which belies its status as the former capital of Malta. A millennium after our Roman nobleman walked across his tiled floors Malta was part of the Fatimid Caliphate -- a form of government based on the tenets of Islam -- that stretched across northern Africa and into the Arabian Peninsula.





It was during this period that the moat and walls that surround Mdina were first constructed. With few vehicles permitted today inside its gates, a walk through the narrow
What is the island nation? What are some of the ages of Malta's temples? What dates back 5000 years Where is Malta located?
Malta around 3600 BC, stone temples at Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, middle of the Mediterranean,
question: What is the island nation?, answer: Malta | question: What are some of the ages of Malta's temples?, answer: around 3600 BC, | question: What dates back 5000 years, answer: stone temples at Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, | question: Where is Malta located?, answer: middle of the Mediterranean,