Where Malta is, and how its islands fit together

Look for Malta on a map of Europe and your eye should go just below the toe of Italy, south of Sicily, roughly halfway across the sea between Europe and Africa. The Maltese government puts it neatly, describing the country as right in the middle of the Mediterranean, 93 km south of Sicily and 288 km north of Libya. That position explains almost its entire history, from the Phoenicians to the British, and it’s why the islands were fought over for so long.

Malta on the map of Europe

The first thing to grasp is that Malta isn’t one island but an archipelago of 316 km², about 122 square miles. Of all its islands, only the three largest are inhabited. On OpenStreetMap the centre of Valletta sits at 35.899 degrees north and 14.514 degrees east. The island-by-island split is in how big Malta is.

Politically Malta is firmly European. It has been an EU member since 1 May 2004, joined Schengen on 21 December 2007 and has paid in euros since 2008. Geographically it’s much closer to Sicily than to the African coast. I go into that, and whether it belongs to Italy, in is Malta a country?. Everything else, from language to money, sits in my Malta travel guide.

How do the three islands sit?

The island of Malta takes up the south-east of the group. It’s the big one, 245 km², home to the capital, Luqa airport and all but 41,793 of the country’s residents. Gozo lies to the north-west, 67 km², across a strait that the Gozo tourist board describes as a mere 5 km, which the ferry from Ċirkewwa covers in around 25 minutes. Comino, about 3 km², sits in the middle of that strait, with Cominotto opposite and the Blue Lagoon between them.

The islets complete the picture. Filfla lies south of Malta; St Paul’s Islands, or Selmunett, sit off the north coast; and Fungus Rock rises from Dwejra Bay on Gozo. All are Natura 2000 sites and none is inhabited. No official source I’ve read covers visiting them, so I wouldn’t plan a landing. I tell each island’s story in the Maltese islands.

The main island, end to end

The island of Malta is easy to read. The east coast is where city life happens, with Valletta on a peninsula between the Grand Harbour and Marsamxett, Sliema and St Julian’s to the north, and the Three Cities across the water from the capital. The south-east has Marsaxlokk and the airport. The south and west are high coast, with the Ħaġar Qim temples and the Dingli Cliffs. The island’s highest point, Ta’ Dmejrek, is 253 m. The north is where the sandy beaches are, with Mellieħa and Ċirkewwa port at the far end.

The NSO splits the island into five statistical districts (the two harbour districts, the south-east, the west and the north), with Gozo and Comino as the sixth. All 68 local councils are listed in towns and villages in Malta.

Getting to this dot on the map

Most British visitors fly, and the airport at Luqa saw 10,061,969 passengers pass through in 2025, August being its peak. If you’re already in Sicily, there’s also the sea route. Virtu Ferries links Malta with Pozzallo, 92.6 km away, and Catania, 185.2 km away. I compare every option in how to get to Malta.

What the map doesn’t tell you

This is where people misjudge journey times. In a straight line everything looks close, but the main island has 546,461 residents and 2,218 people per square kilometre, so the roads are busy. According to the Gozo tourist board, a bus or taxi ride from the airport up to Ċirkewwa takes around an hour, and that’s to cross an island of under 250 km². My advice is to read the map in bus times, not in miles.

There’s one pleasant surprise for British travellers, though. You’ll be driving, or being driven, on the left, and English is one of the two official languages, so asking the way is never a problem. Just set your watch an hour forward when you land, since Malta keeps GMT +1.

Reading the map on the ground

One tip for once you’ve landed. Almost every bus route starts from Valletta’s terminal by the Triton Fountain or from Buġibba in the north, so the network works like a star rather than a grid. If you’re trying to cross the island from, say, Mellieħa to Marsaxlokk, it’s often quicker to change in Valletta than to look for a direct route.