Malta

Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe, located in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya. It lies 80 km south of Sicily, 284 km east of Tunisia, and 333 km north of Libya. The official languages are Maltese and English, and 66% of the current Maltese population is at least conversant in the Italian language.

Malta has been inhabited since approximately 5900 BC. Its location in the centre of the Mediterranean has historically given it great strategic importance as a naval base, with a succession of powers having contested and ruled the islands, including the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Knights of St. John, French, and British, amongst others.With a population of about 516,000 over an area of 316 km2, Malta is the world's tenth-smallest country by area and fourth most densely populated sovereign country.