View of Valletta from Sliema

Malta, officially the Republic of Malta (Maltese: Repubblika ta’ Malta), is a developed southern European country and consists of an archipelago situated centrally in the Mediterranean, 93 km south of Sicily and 288 km north-east of Tunisia, with Gibraltar 1,826 km to the west and Alexandria 1,510 km to the east.

Malta covers just over 300 km² in land area, making it one of Europe’s smallest and one of Europe’s most densely populated countries. Its de facto capital is Valletta and the largest city is Birkirkara. Maltese is the national language and a co-official language, alongside English.

Malta has a long Christian legacy and is an Apostolic See. According to the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul was shipwrecked on “Melite”, which many Bible scholars identify with Malta, and ministered there. Catholicism continues to be the official and dominant religion in Malta. Malta is known for its world heritage sites, most prominently the Megalithic Temples which are the oldest free-standing structures in Europe.

Sports

Football is the most popular sport in Malta. The national stadium is called Ta’ Qali Stadium. It is generally noted that the population tends to be split half and half with regards to supporting Italy or England in football, due to the cultural affinities of the island.

The national football team has won several matches over big opponents that reached the final phases in World Cups, such as Belgium and Hungary and the Greece.

Rugby union is popular in Malta, with the national men’s team currently (April 2010) ranked 54th in the world – the highest ranking that Malta holds in any international team sport. The national squad was given a significant boost early in its history by inviting children of ex-patriate Maltese who had learned the sport in other, higher-level, countries (such as Australia and the U.K.) to improve the level of play. However, in recent years, the national team has included an increasing number of locally-based players, while maintaining its position in the mid-rank of European rugby (currently ranked 22nd of 40 competing European nations).

The national women’s rugby 7′s team has performed very well in recent competitions, earning promotion to, and performing well in, the “A” (second) tier of European competition.

Malta also hosts a snooker round, the Malta Cup, which as of 2008 became a non-ranking event.

In 2008 Malta’s Tony Drago was a member of a victorious European Mosconi Cup team, which was played in Portomaso, Malta.

Boxer Jeff Fenech is of Maltese descent.

There are over 1200 rock climbing routes in Malta. The island offers a mixture of both trad climbing and sport climbing and also offers a good variety of bouldering and deep water soloing . The geography and small size of the island makes the climbing easily accessible. The sport is growing in popularity with local communities, as well as tourists and visitors.

In the last decade the aviation sport of Microlight Flying was introduced to the island by the Island Microlight Club. There are now a total of twenty-two microlight aircraft that operate out of the Malta International Airport.

Boċċi is the Maltese version of the Italian game of bocce, French pétanque and British bowls. Other than certain differences in rules and the ground on which the game is played, one of the most obvious differences between Maltese boċċi and foreign equivalents is the shape of the bowls themselves which tend to be cylindrical rather than spherical in shape. Many small clubs (usually called Klabbs tal-Boċċi in Maltese) can be found in Maltese and Gozitan localities, and are usually well-frequented and are quite active on a local and European level.

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