It is on a plateau that has been inhabited since prehistoric times, but the founding of the city is usually attributed to Phoenicians more than 2,700 years ago.
The city was abandoned after its population was massacred by Arab invaders in 870, but was later repopulated by Muslims.
It gained its modern name of Mdina - today pronounced im-dean-er - from the Arabic word for city, which is also how Medina (or Madīnah) in Saudi Arabia got its name.
Mdina fell to Normans from Sicily in 1091 as part of a re-Christianisation of the whole of Malta, which survived a renewed Arab invasion in 1429.
The Knights of St John were given Malta in 1530 by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in return for an annual tribute of a Maltese falcon.
They effectively moved the capital to Birgu, beside the Grand Harbour, and it was there that the Turks concentrated their effects in the Great Siege of Malta in 1565.
But, in an attempt to boost morale and give themselves a secure winter base, the Turks also advanced on Mdina, but were fooled into abandoning plans for an assault when the garrison fired its guns at what was considered a wastefully long range, convincing the Turkish commanders that the city was amply supplied.
Ernle Bradford's The Great Siege: Malta 1565 vividly tells the story.
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| Main entrance to Mdina |
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| Close-up of the gate |
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| A typically walled and paved street |
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| View from a bastion with the Mediterranean in the far distance |
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| Almost certainly St Paul - the site of his shipwrecking on Malta in about AD59 is traditionally given as being in nearby St Paul's Bay |
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