After the seventh trip around the city on the seventh day, Scripture tells us that the wall ‘fell down flat’ (Joshua 6:20), in reference to the sacking of Jericho.

In ancient and not so ancient history, defensive walls around cities were used for protection, to retreat back into a safe haven and beat off the besiegers. Nowadays, of course, there are not that many walled cities left in the world and those that still do have walls have mushroomed into suburbs – the walls themselves now in the inner city.

Malta and Gozo has some wonderful examples of walled cities – Valletta, Victoria, Vittoriosa, Mdina, Cospicua, Senglea and what is unique about them is that they have survived in their entirety, with the walls representing present day boundaries.

People still live in these cities and it is a truly unique experience to park your car on a main road and walk into a living walled, fortified city. It must be an otherworld experience for tourists to see, feel and touch these magnificent structures.

Vittoriosa, Senglea, Cospicua, Mdina and Victoria have all felt the brunt of siege warfare and history tells us that although the fortifications were severely damaged, they were rebuilt and strengthened by the Knights of Malta following the siege by the Ottoman Empire in 1565.

Sadly today, through the passage of time, these bastions are under threat.

A combination of wear and tear, landslides, stone and soil erosion and sliding earth have led to cracks in some of the walls – at most of the sites in question. As we have already mentioned, these great walled cities are priceless – Malta cannot afford losing even a single wall.

Those who have sailed into the Grand Harbour or seen it from the air, will realise just how breathtaking these megastructures of their time still are today.

They are part of our country’s identity – the walls on which the Knights and their charges beat back the Ottomans, the walls which the French hid behind, the same walls which survived the brutal bombing attacks on Valletta in WWII.

They certainly have been through a lot in their time. Sadly, as mentioned, some of the bastions are in urgent need of repair – most notably the walls of Mdina, Vittoriosa and the Cittadella in Gozo.

This is why the government has sought funding from the EU to bolster the foundations of these grand walls. The first of the bastions which will receive attention is understood to be the one surrounding the Cittadella.

The project has been earmarked for 10 per cent of the e36 million which will result in the restoration of a span of 135,000 cubic metres over six km of fortification walls. It is no easy feat – yet it is something which is essential. Obviously, one cannot expect work to be completed within a short time.

The structural and historic integrity of these walls needs to be retained, and that will involve painstaking studies, groundwork and preparation before the actual work to restore and prevent further cracking and sliding even starts.

What is of definite importance is that these wonderful architectural jewels are preserved for years and generations to come – they are part of what we are and what we want to be in the future. Inaction would be criminal.