Valletta - Grand Harbor

The whole harbor area around the center of Valletta is enclosed by a semicircle of densely populated little towns, which combine with the capital to form the conurbation of Valletta. Running into one another along the south side of the Grand Harbor are Kalkara, Vittoriosa, Cospicua, Senglea, Paola and Marsa, and to the north, around Marsamxett Harbor, are Floriana Pietà, Msida, Ta' Xbiex, Gzira and Sliema.

International shipping traffic mostly uses the Grand Harbor of Valletta, which can take vessels of any size. There are also ferry services from Valletta to Catania, Syracuse, Reggio di Calabria and Naples, as well as to Libya, the main customer for Malta's exports.

The Grand Harbor, modernized in 1961, handles almost the whole of the country's commercial and passenger traffic. It has a deep-water quay, which can take vessels of up to 92,000 GRT, with a large grain elevator (capacity 12,500 tons) and many transit warehouse S. The harbor has an annual turnover of more than 400,000 tons of freight.