Lecture by Judge Galea Debono and Professor Tony Bonanno – The Eastern Sector of the Victoria Lines – Military, Archaeological and Historical Sites

What started out as constitutional walks in the countryside some years back, slowly turned into exploratory cross-country hikes to the four corners of the Island.

Professor Bonanno’s archeological expertise and retired Judge Galea Debono’s interest in military history soon fused into a penchant for seeking out locations which combined these two aspects. Prof. Bonanno’s camera was put to good use in photographing the very interesting sites, often in forlorn and out of the way places.

After a number of visits to the Selmun promontory some three years ago, they mooted the idea of combining their photos and the results of their research about the locations visited in a joint power-point presentation in the annual series of Din l-Art Helwa lectures.

This initial experiment was followed up by a thorough survey of the whole length of the Victoria Lines and their immediate environs and a second joint lecture was delivered last autumn on the North West segment of this defense work. This year the Eastern segment will be the subject of the power-point presentation. It will cover the stretch from Baħar ic-Cagħaq to Naxxar Gap, traversing the dramatic gorges of Wied il-Faħam and Wied Anġlu. Apart from the military engineering aspect, the joint lecture will focus on various sites of archeological and architectural interest, ranging from cart ruts, dolmens, Punic and Palaeo-Christian tombs to more recent architectural features.

In their joint lectures, the speakers alternate in talking about the various locations falling under their respective special interests as their progress along the Victoria Lines unfolds.