Influence of the Physical Landscape on the Historical and Recent Term Paper

Influence of the Physical Landscape on the Historical and Recent Settlement Patterns of the Maltese Islands - Term Paper Example Malta’s spectacular landscape and Mediterranean climate have made it a tourist haven. All these factors have affected a shift from the rural to the urban and have led to Malta’s population is heavily concentrated on the east coast. Malta, derived from the Latin name ‘Melita,’ meaning ‘Honey Island,’ is formally called the Republic of Malta. It is an archipelago comprising of six islands and islets in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, ninety-three kilometers South of Sicily and 288 kilometers north from the African coast. The six islands are Malta, Gozo, Comino, Cominotto, Filfla, and St. Paul’s Island. While the first three are inhabited, the others are very small, barren, uninhabited islets. It has a total area of 316 square kilometers, of which Malta comprises 246 square kilometers. The geographical coordinates of the archipelago are latitudes 36 degrees N and 35 degrees S and longitudes14 degrees E and 14 degrees W. Malta enjoys th e typical central Mediterranean climate of long, hot, dry summers with cooling sea breezes, warm and sporadically wet autumns and mild winters with warm westerly winds. An annual average of eight hours of sunshine a day makes it a holidaymakers’ paradise. The mean temperature is 19 degrees C. and the average annual rainfall measures about 560 mm. (The Malta Story, 1998). With a population of about 394,000, which works out to about 1,247 inhabitants per square kilometer, Malta’s population density ranks among the highest in the world (Commonwealth Secretariat, n. d.). A study of the settlement patterns of the Maltese islands over time shows that the distribution of the human population has been strongly influenced by Malta’s unique physical landscape and geographical location as well as its’ historical circumstances through the ages. Malta’s physical landscape derives from its’ being mainly a gradually undulating globigerina (formed by marine protozoa) limestone plateau.