Sliema

Sliema

Sliema, town, eastern Malta, situated on a headland between Marsamxett Harbour to the east and St. Julian’s Bay to the west. It faces Valletta southward across the harbour, with Fort Tigné dominating the entrance. The name Sliema is said to derive from a prayer that seamen invoked as they passed a church at the entrance to Marsamxett Harbour. Until the middle of the 19th century, Sliema contained the summer residences of well-to-do Maltese people. Some subsequently decided to reside there permanently, and today Sliema is a modern and prestigious residential community with a concentration of hotels and high-rise apartment blocks. St. Julian’s Tower, a medieval watchtower that was once used to spot corsairs, still stands on the northern Mediterranean seafront. Pop. (2007 est.) 11,850.