Site 15: St. Angelos - Central Courtyard

Fort St. Angelo was the first site visited on the ICEX Malta Expedition, and was a great way to kick off the project. The fort stands directly across the Grand Harbor from the capital city of Valletta. Fort St. Angelo holds tremendous significance in Maltese history and is currently closed to the public for reconstruction. The second level is a private space occupied by the Order of St. John Knights, known as defenders of the Holy Land and providers of the first "hospitals".

The resident knight of the castle, Friar John Edward Critien, and was able to provide the team with a wealth of knowledge about the history of the site. Before the Knights occupied Malta, there was only a small fort built on a hill. When the knights came in the mid 1500’s, they built fortifications that extended to the seaside. Built by the Order of St. John Knights, these fortifications became the main point of resistance against the Ottoman forces during the Great Siege of 1565. During World War II, the site was used by the British forces as a military base, and took on the name HMS St. Angelo.

The first site we visited (site 15) was in the courtyard grotto of the fort. The access point was a well-like structure topped with a hollowed column base that was likely part of an older Roman pillar. Once the robot was lowered into the water, the water was discovered to be very murky which made it hard to see video. Even though the visibility was poor, sonar was utilized to map the interior very clearly. The cistern was bell-shaped with about 5 meters across at the widest and 7 feet of water. A short video of what the robot saw during the 2009 expedition can be found here.

Shown below is the sonar data image, a top view of the mapped image (0.20m grid cell resolution) and a 3D view of the mapped image (0.05m grid cell resolution).