Victorian Sliema embankment anomaly (6 photos)

On the bustling waterfront of the Maltese town of Sliema, where today modern hotels and apartments overlook the Mediterranean Sea, an unusual witness to the past is lost.





This modest limestone building from the 19th century, resembling the scenery of a steampunk novel, is an old desalination plant. It miraculously survived among the glass giants and now has become a quiet reminder of how the British tried to "water" arid Malta.



The building was built in 1881, when Malta was a British colony. The task was to provide fresh water to Fort Tigne and the surrounding area. The station used boiling: seawater was heated, the steam condensed, and the salt remained in the waste.





But a year later the station was closed. The technology turned out to be too expensive and ineffective. More modern systems came to replace it.



A one-story building made of Maltese limestone with high windows and strict proportions survived literally by a miracle. It turned out to be interesting as a historical artifact.



Locals call it a time capsule, as it is a rare example of 19th-century industrial architecture against the backdrop of concrete high-rise buildings. The station forms an unusual contrast with the modern buildings and creates an atmosphere of an abandoned experiment.

The house is modestly pressed against the sidewalk, as if embarrassed by its respectable age.



But it was here that the history of Maltese water supply began, albeit unsuccessfully. And if you look through the window, you can see traces of pipes and boilers inside, reminiscent of scars from a bright, but unfulfilled technological dream.