Crane Spotting
Over 120 active tower cranes, and counting.
Birdwatchers travel the world for a rare sighting. On Malta, the rarest sight is a horizon without a crane, and you will search a very long time for one.
With well over a hundred tower cranes active at any moment, the islands offer the most reliable spotting on the continent. There is no season, no migration to wait for, no need for patience or silence. Step outside, look up, and begin counting. You will lose track somewhere around the harbour.
The dedicated spotter keeps a list. The luffing jib, elegant in a tight site. The flat-top, sociable, often seen in pairs. The self-erecting model that arrived overnight and will be gone the moment its tower is complete. Each swings its load against the blue with the unhurried confidence of a creature that knows it owns the sky.
Find a rooftop bar at sunset and make a game of it: how many can you see at once? Children love it. Returning visitors use it to measure the years. The all-time record, set last Tuesday from a balcony in the centre, is simply too high to print responsibly.
A crane-spotter’s paradise, and, unlike most paradises, expanding.
