Today we ventured to another walled city in Malta, Mdina. This is the oldest city in Malta, and before the time of the Knights of Malta, the capital city. We began with a visit to the Domus Romana, a Roman villa that was discovered in the 19^th century. We had read about this house earlier in the month and made our own mosaic, based on some of the beautifully preserved floors of the house. One of the amazing discoveries was an old Muslim cemetery, which was identified as such because all of the graves were facing Mecca. I had heard about this discovery in one of our classes at the university, but I didn’t realize that some of the tombstones had also been found and were on display. These date from the Muslim period in Malta, 870-1090.

After a yummy lunch in Rabat, the “suburb” of Mdina, we headed into the old walled city. It was quiet, peaceful and mercifully free of traffic. On another visit, we hope to see inside the cathedral or one of the other sites, but today, it was enough to walk the streets and find a gelato stand with a wonderful view of the countryside.

A tombstone from a Muslim grave

Emperor Claudius and friends

Entrance to the walled city