National Museum of Natural History, Mdina

The National Museum of Natural History is a remarkable repository of Malta’s natural heritage, housed within an elegant 18th-century palace in Mdina. Its extensive collections comprise nearly one million specimens covering zoology, botany, geology and palaeontology.

Among the museum’s more unusual exhibits are a flying squid found washed ashore in Malta in the 1980s, a 4,000-year-old mummified Nile crocodile from ancient Egypt and the skull of a false killer whale. Visitors can also see fossil remains of a crocodilian discovered in the rocks of Gozo.

One of the museum’s most impressive exhibits is the enormous fossilised tooth of the extinct megalodon, a reminder of the formidable creatures that once inhabited the world’s oceans. The Habitats Hall, meanwhile, explores Malta’s different ecosystems and the birds and other animals that inhabit them.

The palace itself has a fascinating history, having served several purposes over the centuries before officially becoming the National Museum of Natural History on 22 June 1973. Today, the museum is dedicated to collecting, studying, displaying and conserving natural history specimens, with particular emphasis on Malta’s flora and fauna.

Its galleries cover subjects ranging from local biodiversity, geology and palaeontology to human evolution, marine life, insects and shells. Several sections also commemorate naturalists who contributed to the study of Malta’s natural heritage.

A room dedicated to Maltese ornithologist Joe Sultana explores the ecological importance of islands and islets such as Filfla and Fungus Rock, while the Lewis Mizzi Hall displays part of the mineralogist’s extensive collection.