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Slammer

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I'm back!
Anybody miss me whilst I was gone….?
…..Didn't think so.
Actually I would have been posting sooner, however this new job has me behind a computer scream, sorry, screen for eight and a half hours a day, eight an a half hours in the cubicle of an online auctions house saving you good people from fraudsters, scammers, cheats, criminals, Nigerian princes and Russian porn-traps all wanting to separate you from your money and the last thing I have after a day at work is the muse to sit and write.
But every now and then I get the urge,
..Like now..!
Slammer has left Switzerland and now lives on Malta, Malta, ground zero for derelict places, all kind of places, castles, fortifications, walls, barracks, you name it, we got it in derelict and from a time when Humans first banged the rocks together to the 21st century.
So come with me and take a look.
As a nation Malta is tiny, a mere speck on the expanse of the Mediterranean sea, to give it a perspective, Malta is just over half the size of Lake Constance, however with regard to history, Malta punches far above it's weight, everywhere you go nothing has been left untouched by millennia of human hands.
Here is one such change in the landscape
You sure can't see it from Space, heck, you can't even see the Island from space, but across the entire width of Malta is a wall, the maps have it as the Victoria lines, but people know it better as the great wall of Malta. It stretches 10 Kilometres, bisecting the island between Fomm-ir Rih in the west and Fort Madliena in the east.
Built in 1722 by the Order of Malta it follows the landscape along the top of a cliff thrown up by a geographical fault.
It was built to stop an enemy that never came and today it marks the boundary between the densely inhabited south and the farms and fields of the north.
And you can walk along it, some parts have been restored, some are in ruin and some are sheer wilderness.
A few days ago I went for a walk along a stretch of the wall.
Come and have a look.
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The wall runs on top of a vertical cliff giving stunning views over a timeless landscape.

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From coast to coast…
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..following the landscape.
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Nice and green now that the rains have come.
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On a brilliant day.

From the vantage point above the plain you can get a good view of the "big ear" a pre-radar tracking device, a 200-foot long curved concrete wall designed to listen for the sound of the aero engines from enemy aircraft coming in from Sicily. It is aimed at Catania and can listen over 35 miles, that gives a six minute warning, time enough to Lock and load.
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It seems to be the only on of it's kind outside the UK.
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Now in part a storage for GO telecom.
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Had to go all Bambi eyes to be let in, but it was well worth it.
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From three focus points the range and direction could be computed quite accurately.
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It still has the original anamorphic camouflage pattern to become indistinguishable from the surrounding fields to attacking aircraft.

And it still works. Although there are no longer Me 109's and Ju 87's and Cants and Macchi C.202's incoming, you can hear many times amplified the eerie background sound of Malta.
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when i was there i went on one of the bus rides to the south and on the way to Valetta we passed what looked like a derelict holiday complex
 
That acoustic mirror's modelled on the one at Denge Marsh (many reports on that site on here) - it was built about 10 years after the Kent one though. I think they had some idea that it would work better in the Med than the English channel. Anyway, a great site and good pics. Thanks!
 

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