12/27/2022 0 Comments Valletta maltaIn the densest neighbourhoods, it was unclear whether you were underground or above ground The shelters were strung with electric lighting, and though they’re more than 70 years old, many of the lightbulbs were still intact. Each was just large enough for a family of four to huddle in. Punched out of the tunnel walls, in a zigzag pattern meant to diffuse shock waves, were dozens of shelters. Photograph: Claudio Bruni/EyeEm/Getty Images Valletta received Unesco world heritage status in 1980. Your shoes are ruined.” Indeed, they were. “There used to be a drainage system here – see the channels along the sides?” he said. Where the torchlight bounced off the walls, we could see the indent of hundreds of thousands of rock pick swings, conjuring ghostly images of labourers excavating during the second world war – frantically carving out shelter for a populace reeling from the fierce aerial bombings by Mussolini and later, Hitler.Īt the bottom of the staircase, we found ourselves standing in a foot of water. “They only discovered this tunnel a few years ago,” he said as he descended. He took us to the bin room where he kicked aside trash bags and cardboard boxes to reveal a tight, spiral staircase. Dimech immediately marched us toward the Malta Law Courts, where, to the dismay of the guards, he picked up a phone from behind the security desk and had an energetic conversation in Maltese that somehow secured access to the building. We arrived a few minutes late and out of breath, veering past tourists eating ice cream in the sun and taking photos of the dense vertical houses.
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