Filfla is a small, barren, uninhabited islet 5 km south of Malta, and is the most southerly point of Maltese Archipelago.
Missing imageFilfla.jpg Filfla in the horizon.
It has an area of just 60,000 m² and is a crumbling flat-topped
limestone plateau surrounded by 60 metre high cliffs. The only known permanent structure on it was a
chapel built inside a cave in
1343, and which was destroyed by an
earthquake in
1856 that also sank part of the island. Until
1971 the island was used for target practice by the
Royal Navy and
Royal Air Force. It became a bird reserve in
1980, and in
1988 further controls were added prohibiting fishing within a
nautical mile around it as not all the British ordnance detonated upon impact.
The name comes from filfel, the Arabic for a peppercorn.
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