Fort Benghisa - Richard I. Borg

 Find any decent tourist map and you'll find 'Fort Benghisa' listed under sites to see. Finding Fort Benghisa on the map is further enticing since the location is close to the "Ghar Hasan" (Hasan's Cave) area to the East of Dingli Cliffs roughly at the SW tip of Malta.

So you drive off to Fort Benghisa with the keen anticipation of enjoying the perfect combination of a historic place in a picturesque setting. ANYTHING BUT! You do get to the place easily because the signs clearly indicate the way, but once you get there your first reaction will be 'Did I miss a turning somewhere? What is this place of doom?'

The place is in shambles. Wrecked Cars and bulky refuse litter the place. The moat is dangerously surrounded by rusty barbed wire hidden in a jungle of thorns and wild shrubs. The fort itself is camouflaged in the same attire.

On coming to terms with this shock you try to convince yourself that since the place is clearly pointed out on the map and since there are easy to follow road signs showing the way you'd believe that the treasure lies within the fort. A nice walk ending with a view of the sea perhaps. WRONG AGAIN!

The only way in is threateningly marked as PRIVATE - KEEP OUT. I walked in and found that people - 'squatters' -actually live in some of the barracks and also enjoy satellite TV. More wrecked cars and junk. Stray animals. Barracks hosting poultry and fowl.

I decided to walk further in. Two menacing-looking people approached me. I was mildly threatened that I shouldn't have entered and that I can only risk being harmed 'by some animal'

What a shame! Who are those people?? Do they have a permit to live there?? How can a tourist attraction and historical site be in such neglect!!!

Looking up the wikipedia online reference today it is stated that: "The fort is in private hands and the interior of the fort is inaccessible." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Benghisa (The page was last modified 03:47, 12 March 2006)

Why and how can a historic site be in private hands?

Please contribute to my plea. Go and see for yourselves. Speak out.

Richard I. Borg
21st April 2006