Malta's treasures hidden under ground

Miranda Publishers are launching their latest in the popular 360° series - Underground Malta, which delves beneath the country's surface to expose a hitherto hidden heritage.

Underground Malta "celebrates Malta's spirituality, its architectural and artistic heritage, its cultural and military patrimony, its economy and tourism, through a series of spectacular photographs of subterranean Malta," Miranda Publishers directors, brothers Tony and Eddie Aquilina, said.

Such an extensive wealth of sites was discovered that they already have a second volume lined up.

Eddie Aquilina started working on the first volume of Underground Malta 18 months ago when Italian photographer Enrico Formica, who has taken shots for other Miranda Publishers books with his high-tech 360° and Neblox 180° equipment, was scouting around Malta and suggested creating a publication based on the couple of underground sites he had visited.

Mr Formica, a frequent visitor to the island, was convinced, in view of the Malta's incredible heritage, that the world's civilisation started here. He was certain that, given the island's rich history, there would be enough interesting, underground locations to photograph.

It was Mr Formica's comment that sowed the seed of Underground Malta 360° in the Aquilina brothers' minds and they were amazed at what they discovered in their quest for off-the-beaten-track underground sites.

"In my research here, there and everywhere for underground sites I came across not only those that the public is familiar with but locations few bother to visit, such as St Agatha's and St Paul's catacombs, or those that are not open to the public, such as the monastery of St Peter in Mdina, home to the cloistered Benedictine community, among others. Many have never been photographed before, certainly not in such an unusual manner," Eddie Aquilina said.

Printed in Italy to top-quality standards, Underground Malta has an introduction by Geoffrey Aquilina Ross while historical and artistic research is by Fiona Galea Debono.

The coffee-table publication hits the bookstands tomorrow. It contains 56 images, a few of which were also taken by Daniel Cilia. The images unfold over two, three, four and even six fold-out pages - the largest, showing the impressive St Paul's Catacombs, measuring two metres.

Moreover, the use of the 360° format offers a view that would not be possible to take in at one go if standing in the site, and with no distortion whatsoever, Eddie Aquilina explained.

Among the images are those of the well under the President's Palace, where Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt are said to have met in 1945, prior to the Yalta conference on the Black Sea; old countryside cave chapels full of treasures; the Salina catacombs and Ghar il-Kbir in Dingli - some not open to the public.

The Has-Saptan complex in Gudja is another intriguing site, built between 1958 and 1963 and including a network of inter-linked underground tunnels, about 10 kilometres long and containing pipelines to Marsaxlokk, Valletta and Luqa.

Another six 360° coffee-table books are in the pipeline, including the collector's item, limited edition - 3,000 copies only - Welcome Malta to Europe 360°, which is being launched in January 2005, Underwater Malta: Malta from the Sea, Malta's World Heritage Sites, Museums in Malta, Fortresses of Malta and The Knights of St John in Malta, all portraying aspects of Malta from a different perspective, one that is not normally seen.