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Ninety seconds on Fort Delimara
Only on the weekends Heritage Malta announces in advance; outside them the fort stays shut. On an open weekend, guided tours leave on the hour from morning to late afternoon.
Through Heritage Malta's online store, which lists every tour slot for each weekend with its start time and its language. Buy the ticket before the day.
Heritage Malta says the site may prove challenging for wheelchair users, because ground levels vary across the fort. Visitors with limited mobility are advised to contact Heritage Malta before booking a slot.
Heritage Malta opens this Victorian fort above Marsaxlokk Harbour only on announced tour weekends, when you can go inside the cliffs and see some of its 38-ton guns.
Most of Fort Delimara lies underground. Its main guns sat in rooms cut into the cliff on the shoreward face of Delimara Point.
Rock-cut ditches guard four sides of the fort, and the sheer curve of the cliff closes off the rest. Look at the cut rock walls of the ditch: the limestone has worn away, in places up to a metre deep.
At the entrance, the old main door was restored on site, keeping as much of its original wood and ironwork as possible. A square building, possibly an early 20th-century addition, stands above the gate, and a Second World War pillbox rises above the fort's outline, plain to see from the sea.
15 minutes before your tour slot, be at the fort's gate on Delimara Road.
Tours begin in Maltese and alternate with English through the day, so pick a slot in your language when you book.
Inside are a vast parade ground, barracks and underground passages. The guide follows the fort's role from Victorian warfare to the Second World War and shows the restoration works under way. The tour also reaches some of the 38-ton guns, out of the six that armed the fort in its military days.
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