The Arabs divided the ancient city of Melita into two parts in 870AD. They built ramparts and a ditch around the best bits and called it Mdina (the city) and the rest they called Rabat (the suburb).
The ramparts and ditch are huge (as usual) and today it’s manicured to an inch of it’s life.
The city is free of all traffic – save a few vehicles with special licences, hence it is now known as “The Silent City”. It’s fantastic to walk around the beautiful and narrow streets uninterrupted by the usual noise.
The residents keep things really clean and tidy with as much greenery as possible considering there’s not a patch of soil or grass to be seen!
The Cathedral Church – awesome inside but we were unable to take photos. It’s also one of the only large buildings where a decent picture can be taken due to the narrow streets. The old cathedral was destroyed in an earthquake in 1693 and this one was completed by 1702 (not bad going!)
The view across the lowlands to the north-east of the Rabat plateau. From this point you can see about 3/4 of the width of Malta (at its widest!)
For lunch we went into Rabat and found one of ‘our’ little local joints where we got 2 glasses of coffee (not cups) and 2 cheese cakes (like small puff pastry ricotta pasties) for 1.2 euros cooked in the oven in the centre of the picture, the locals were so friendly.
A narrow street in Rabat.
Popping back into Mdina after dark and walking around the, even quieter, streets with the street lamps on was very atmospheric.
Another great day was had!
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