Malta - Northern Coast Attractions

This was the prettiest and smallest bay in Malta until 1979 when the director Robert Altman re-created Sweethaven here for "Popeye The Movie." Inevitably the strain of movie-making had an unpleasant impact on the natural environment of the area.

A headland separates the two popular sandy beaches of Ghajn Tuffieha (the Spring of the apples) and Rampla tal-Mizquqa, otherwise known as Golden Bay.

Both beaches lie at the northwestern end of the Pwales Valley, six kilometers from St Paul's Bay and in between the Wardija and Bajda ridges.

The most serious fault in the area is the Great Fault, which almost bisects the island and runs from Fomm ir-Rih in the west until it peters out in Bahar ic-Cagharq, 15 kilometers away on the east coast. Its near-vertical face - 239 meters at its highest, means the valleys and settlements below and to the north have always been indefensible and expendable.

Marfa is a seven-kilometer stretch of hard coralline limestone and marquis. Permanently uninhabited, it has mainly been used as a signaling outpost.

This tower commands the high ground on Marfa Ridge. The huge, forbidding and faded terra-cotta-colored fort was built in 1649. The tower's size and position gave it a dual role; not only as a defense but also as a signaling link between the towers on Gozo and St Mary's on Comino, which ultimately led to Valletta.

This sliver of bay is an undeveloped section of the northern coast, separating Salina from the coast that begins in Qawra and ends in Xemxija.

During the 1870s the defenses along the Great fault were reinforced and in 1897 these were officially called the Victoria Lines, in honor of the monarch's Diamond Jubilee.

What remains of the Victoria Lines can best be appreciated on foot, especially at the western end of Bingemma Gap.

Wardija is the limestone ridge nearest to the Great Fault. It rises to 143 meters (2 meters lower than the highest ridge of Mellieha). The Wardija ridge spans from Ghajn Tuffieha to St Paul's Bay and is the residential preserve of the upper-class Maltese. It is sparsely populated and a good place to walk around. The scenery is panoramic, especially from the old English gun emplacements overlooking St Paul's Bay.