People have lived in Malta since around 5200 BC with the first people living there coming from Sicily. An important prehistoric Neolithic culture marked by Megalithic structures was on the islands, which were made a thousand years before the Pyramids of Giza, which means they were very old. The Phoenicians in the Mediterranean took over Malta from about 1000 BC, using the islands to expand their sea explorations and trade in the Mediterranean, until the Carthaginians took over and also expanded in the Mediterranean, but these were also defeated by the Romans in 216 BC.