Southern Harbour District

The Southern Harbour District is the historic core of Malta and of the Maltese coast — Grand Harbour, the deep natural inlet that made Malta strategically indispensable to every maritime power that held it, from the Phoenicians and Romans through the Knights of St John to the Royal Navy. The harbour is divided by the Sciberras Peninsula into Grand Harbour to the south and Marsamxett Harbour to the north. On the Grand Harbour side, the fortified promontories of Senglea and Vittoriosa, the Three Cities, face the Valletta bastions across the water, and the deep channel between them holds the cruise-ship berths and the ferry terminal. The harbour geometry — long, narrow, and surrounded by high limestone walls — creates its own wind effects and surge patterns that have nothing to do with the negligible astronomical tide. The mean tidal range inside Grand Harbour is around 0.1 to 0.2 metres. What moves water in the harbour is primarily atmospheric pressure, the Grigal northeast wind, and storm surge that propagates in from the open Mediterranean. The seawall promenades at Senglea, the Victoria Gate landing steps, and the Lower Barrakka water-level gauge near the harbour entrance have all seen surge events that add 30 to 40 centimetres to the background level in sustained northeast weather, swamping what the tidal prediction says in either direction. The Valletta waterfront fish market and the ferry quays operate on schedule regardless of state of tide because the harbour effectively has none.