Popeye’s village

Popeye’s village was built only to make the film “Popeye” in 1980, in which Popeye was played by Robin Williams. For shooting of this film, 19 wooden houses were built. Although the film had little success, the village has been preserved and today it is a tourist attraction.

The village is settled in small bay named Il-Prajjet.

Malta Coastal Walk

The bay is surrounded by steep rocks.

Despite Malta being mostly flat, due to rocky terrain walking is very hard and slow even on trails.

Trails pass along cliffs, which at some points rise 50-100 m above sea level.

The trail passes by another Ghajn Znuber tower from the 17th century, which belongs to the Order of the Knights of Malta.

Next to the sea there is a small house built within the rock.

This type of shelter is quite common in Malta.

During the entire walk, the shore is rocky and inaccessible. In some places, small bays can be seen, which can only be reached by boat. Buildings can be seen in the distance.

Golden Coast

Hotels at so called “Golden Coast”.

Another tower of the Knights of Malta is found, Ghajn Tuffieha.

The tower is located above the shores of Ghajn Tuffieh. The Gold Coast and Ghajn Tuffieha Beach are rare sandy beaches throughout the island.

This small peninsula of Il-Karraba is one of the greatest hiking attractions in Malta.

Part of the trail which takes you around the peninsula.

The peninsula is home to many endemic plant species. There are 10,000 different endemic plants growing all over Malta, which exist only here and nowhere else in the world. This is because Malta is an island and thus isolated from the mainland and other plant and animal species that would destroy these endemic species. This here is Euphorbia melitensis or Maltese milkweed.

The trail continues up above the coast of Ghajn.

As spring arrives, a large number of plant species grow in Malta, of which this plant with bright yellow flowers attracts the most attention.

It is Oxalis pes-caprae plantea, a kind of African wood-sorrel.

Another seventeenth century tower of the Knights of Malta.

Once you enter the interior of the tower, you can see a small hole, which leads to the upper floors of the tower. Each tower was more or less identical. It consisted of two floors, on top of which cannons were usually placed. Originally, movable ladders or ropes were used to reach the upper floors.

Mdjar

Coastal walk tour can be ended in the village of Mdjar, which is known for this circular church, the so-called Rotunda. Unlike other churches, which in its base form a cross, either Latin or Greek, the Rotunda has a circle at its base. The church was built in 1912, but it had Renaissance churches as a model, which were  based on the circle as well, and all of them were inspired by the Roman Pantheon.

Check out other beautiful hiking wonders in Malta, like Malta by Foot and Gozo.