Checked content

File:Satelite image of Malta.jpg

Malta, an independent republic, consists of a small group of islands— Malta, Gozo, Kemmuna, Kemmunett, and Filfla—located in the Mediterranean Sea south of Sicily, with a total area of 316 square kilometers. The capital and leading port of the country is Valletta, which appears as a gray patch around the two deep inlets on Malta’s northern coastline. About 400,000 people live on this island nation. The islands of Malta consist of low-lying coralline limestone plateaus surrounded by impermeable clay slopes. The highest point is 239 meters above sea level.

The many ancient monuments and remains on Malta attest to the great age of its civilization. Remains from Stone Age and Bronze Age peoples have been found in subterranean burial chambers. The islands became a Phoenician colony about 1000 B.C. They were later occupied by the Greeks, who called the colony Melita, and later the islands passed successively into the possession of Carthage and Rome. The islands were occupied by Arabs in 870 A.D. A Norman army conquered the Maltese Arabs in 1090, and Malta was later made a feudal fief of the kingdom of Sicily. In 1530 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V granted Malta to the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, who ruled the islands until the 19th century. In 1798 Napoleon invaded and occupied the islands during his Egyptian campaign. Unwilling to be ruled by France, the Maltese appealed to Britain, and in 1799 British naval officer Horatio Nelson besieged Valletta and compelled the withdrawal of the French. In 1814 Malta became part of the British Empire as a crown colony.

This natural-colour image was acquired on July 29, 2001, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite.

Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Source: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16706 NASA]

Public domain This file is in the public domain because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
NASA logo.svg
Dialog-warning.svg
 Warnings:
  • Use of NASA logos, insignia and emblems are restricted per US law 14 CFR 1221.
  • The NASA website hosts a large number of images from the Soviet/ Russian space agency, and other non-American space agencies. These are not necessarily in the public domain.
  • Materials based on Hubble Space Telescope data may be copyrighted if they are not explicitly produced by the STScI. See also {{ PD-Hubble}} and {{ Cc-Hubble}}.
  • The SOHO (ESA & NASA) joint project implies that all materials created by its probe are copyrighted and require permission for commercial non-educational use.
  • Images featured on the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) web site may be copyrighted.


derivative works

Derivative works of this file:

The following pages on Schools Wikipedia link to this image (list may be incomplete):

Learn more

This selection has made Wikipedia available to all children. Thanks to SOS Childrens Villages, 62,000 children are enjoying a happy childhood, with a healthy, prosperous future ahead of them. You can help by sponsoring a child.