Medina connects Malta's commercial importance with its long settlement history. The site has been inhabited for roughly 2,800 years and repeatedly reworked by later builders. Its fortifications made it a recurring place of resistance during Malta's sieges. The near-complete change in the city's layout between its ancient and medieval phases may indicate a change of occupiers. That change does not by itself establish that habitation ceased. Resolving the sequence requires archaeological evidence beyond the available written accounts.
Notable Point · 36:43-40:38
Medina and Malta's layered defensive past
Medina's long occupation and successive fortifications show why it repeatedly became a focal point in Malta's sieges.