History of Malta Ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks have also inhabited the Maltese islands. In 533, Byzantine general Belisarius briefly landed at Malta while on his way from Sicily to North Africa, and by 535, the island was integrated into the Byzantine province of Sicily. During the Byzantine period, the main settlements remained the city of Melite on mainland Malta and the Citadel on Gozo, while Marsaxlokk, Marsaskala, Marsa and Xlendi are believed to have served as harbours. The relatively high quantity of Byzantine ceramics found in Malta suggests that the island might have had an important strategic role within the empire from
Malta Malta Malta (, ; ), officially known as the Republic of Malta (), is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. With a population of about 475,000 over an area of , Malta is the world's tenth smallest and fifth most densely-populated country. Its capital is Valletta, which is the smallest national capital in the European Union by area at 0.8 km. The official languages are Maltese and English, with Maltese officially recognised as the national language and the only Semitic language