Maltese natural heritage

On Wednesday evening I started a short course on Maltese natural heritage being offered by University of Malta.  It is at the old University building in Valletta and there will be four two hour lectures and two Saturday afternoon field trips.

It took me a while to find the location as the old building occupies a whole block in between St Paul's street and Merchant's street.  Valletta is laid out on a simple grid system with straight streets criss-crossing the peninsula so it should be easy to find a particular building but in fact it is so rich in historic buildings that it becomes difficult.  I had to ask for directions on the cold, wet streets before I finally found my way in to the building and then I had to negotiate a maze of ancient corridors. 

I arrived at the right room just as the session was about to start and I was feeling a little flustered.  The room was full of young students and I had to find a seat at the back of the room. This week the session was about the geological beginnings of Malta and it was fascinating.  I have heard about Gondwana in relation to the origins of Australia but I had never pictured that at one point in the beginning of the planet, what is now the Northern edge of Australia was washed by the sea that eventually became the Mediterranean.  

I also came to understand much more about the layering of Malta's rocks which are entirely sedimentary and the way in which the southern edge of Sicily and Malta are actually part of the same lump of rock that collided with another lump of rock to form Sicily.  The links between Malta and Southern Sicily are natural as well as cultural.  So when I go over to Catania for the feast of St Agatha next week, I'll be looking out for the Southern landscapes as well as the cultural stories.

The photo that heads the post is of weathered rock formations from the globigerina limestone cliffs  that rest on a bed of harder coralline limestone at Delimara.