Punic-Roman towers in Malta

The remains of six Punic-Roman towers have been identified in Malta. They are believed to have been built while the island was part of the Punic or Roman Empires. Their architecture suggests a late Punic origin,^[1] and they remained in use throughout the Roman period, until at least the 3rd century AD. Evidence suggests that the towers were used to defend the island.^[2] The towers are clearly all built on high grounds, in specific locations, and could considerably communicate with signals from one to another.^[3] Similar towers are also found in nearby Tunisia with the same defensive system. In the context of time some locals still lived in caves with few others living in vernacular housing with similar characteristics to nearby Sicily.^[4]

The towers are generally held to be built during the Punic era and embellished by the Romans.^[5] Roman and Greek housing were constructed much later and generally not in the proximity to the towers which suggests that by the time the towers may have decreased their importance with the use of other military system such as the fortifications of Melite. However the last time when the towers were burned, to send signals, was in the third century AD. Some towers, such as Ta' Ċieda Tower, were primarily built with the adaptive reuse of pre-historic stones and after the destruction of the towers, when they were not rebuilt again, the ruins were used for funerary tombstones and rubble walls during the Arab period. The bottom base of six towers still survive, at varying extant, while some objects found at the towers are now displayed in museums. Two others were probably completely demolished during the building of the runway of the Malta International Airport.