Mdina

Mdina is a walled city in the Northern Region of Malta that served as the island's capital from antiquity to the medieval period. The city is still surrounded by walls and has a population of little under 300 people, but it is connected to the town of Rabat, which gets its name from the Arabic term meaning suburb.

The city was founded as Maleth by Phoenician inhabitants about the 8th century BC and was later renamed Melite by the Romans. Ancient Melite was larger than modern-day Mdina, and it was shrunk during the Byzantine or Arab occupation of Malta. During this time, the city got its current name, which is derived from the Arabic word medina.

The Mdina fortifications are a complex of defensive walls that surround Mdina, Malta's former capital city. The Phoenicians founded Maleth around the 8th century BC, and it later became part of the Roman Empire under the name Melite. The old city was surrounded by walls, and very few remains of these have survived.

The city walls were restored several times, including by the Byzantine Empire in the early eighth century AD, the Arabs in the early eleventh century, and the Kingdom of Sicily from the medieval period until the fifteenth century. The Order of Saint John constructed the majority of the remaining defenses during the 16th and 18th centuries. Mdina is on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and it is today one of Malta's most popular tourist destinations.

Location: Malta