Tourist information - Gozo
Gozo, the second largest island of the Maltese archipelago, is located some 6 km northwest of Malta, 80 km south of the nearest landfall in Sicily and 298 km north off the African coast. Gibraltar is 1836 km towards the west and Alexandria, Egypt, 1519 km to the east. Which has an area of 67 sq km, it approximates in size Hong Kong Island. Its population has grown to nearly 30,000, a fifth of who lives in the capital Victoria, better known as Rabat.
The island has been inhabited during the last 7000 years gaining a succession of several but related names. The earliest, from Punic times, is GWL (pronounced Gôl), a Phoenician word meaning a round ship, likely in reference to the island's shape from a distance. The island is locally referred to as Ghawdex (pronounced awdesh), a name that dates back to the Arabic rule and used since turn of the second millennium. The name "Gozo", Castillian for joy, continues to be used since the Aragonese rule (1282-1530).
Though reigned over from Malta from time immemorial, Gozo has received semi-autonomous governments several times in its history. It had its municipium minting its very own coins in Roman times (218 BC - AD 535), and lately, between 1961 and 1973, it was administered by the Gozo Civic Council. Gozo also enjoyed short periods of autonomy between 28 October 1798 and 5 September 1800. The island is currently governed like most other area of the Maltese Islands. The executive functions of the central Government are carried out in the Ministry for Gozo, founded 14 May 1987.
The island of Comino and the uninhabited islet of Cominotto are considered part of Gozo for both civil and religious purposes. Lying almost midway in the Gozo-Malta Channel, they cover an area of 2.8 sq km.
Gozo and Comino, though part of Malta, endure essentially different with their own particular traditions and cultural variations.
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