John, French, and British, amongst others.
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, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Knights of St. Malta has been inhabited since approximately 5900 BC. Italian and Sicilian also previously served as official and cultural languages on the island for centuries, with Italian being an official language in Malta until 1934 and a majority of the current Maltese population being at least conversational in the Italian language. The official and national language is Maltese, which is descended from Sicilian Arabic that developed during the Emirate of Sicily, while English serves as the second official language. Its capital is Valletta, which is the smallest national capital in the European Union by area at 0.61 km 2 (0.24 sq mi). With a population of about 515,000 over an area of 316 km 2 (122 sq mi), Malta is the world's tenth smallest country in area and fourth most densely populated sovereign country.
It lies 80 km (50 mi) south of Sicily, 284 km (176 mi) east of Tunisia, and 333 km (207 mi) north of Libya. Malta ( / ˈ m ɔː l t ə/ ( listen) MAWL-tə, UK also / ˈ m ɒ l t ə/ MOL-tə, Maltese: ), officially known as the Republic of Malta ( Maltese: Repubblika ta' Malta ) and formerly Melita, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. eu, shared with other European Union member states