Gozo Island
Gozo is an island of the Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea, second in size to Malta Island. In Maltese the island is called Ghawdex (pronounced awdesh).
Gozo is 67 square kilometers in size, which is approximately the same as Hong Kong Island. The island has a population of 30.000, about 6.000 of them living in its capital Rabat.
It lies 3 3/4 miles northwest from the nearest point of Malta, is of oval form, 8 3/4 miles in length and 4 1/2 miles in extreme breadth.
Gozo is inhabitated since the 5th millennium BC. The first neolithic settlers probably crossed over from Sicily.
In July 1551 Ottomans conquered Gozo and enslaved all 5.000 inhabitants, bringing them to Tarhuna in Libya.
The history of Gozo is strongly coupled with the history of Malta, since Gozo has been governed by Malta within living memory, with the exception of a short period of autonomy between October 28, 1798 and September 5, 1800.Geography
History
