Gozo is an island of the Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea, second in size to Malta Island. In Maltese the island is called Għawdex (pronounced ow-desh).

Geography

Gozo is 67 km² in size, which is approximately the same as Hong Kong Island. The island has a population of 30,000, about 6,000 of them living in its capital Rabat, also known as Victoria.

It lies approximately 6 km northwest from the nearest point of Malta, is of oval form, 14 km in length and 7.25 km in extreme breadth.

History

Gozo is inhabitated since the 5^th millennium BC, as witnessed by the megalithic structures at Ggantija. The first neolithic settlers probably crossed over from Sicily.

In July 1551 Ottomans and Barbary pirates conquered Gozo and enslaved all 5,000 or 6,000 inhabitants, bringing them to Tarhuna in Libya. Their departure port in Gozo was Mġarr Ix-Xini .

The history of Gozo is strongly coupled with the history of Malta, since Gozo has been governed by Malta within living memory, with the exception of a short period of autonomy between October 28, 1798 and September 5, 1800.

External links

• Maltese Ministry for Gozo
• PhotoGlobe: Gozo A collection of commented photos together with GPS-based coordinates