Gozo: History
Gozo has been inhabited since 5000 BC, when farmers from nearby Sicily crossed the sea to the island. Due to the discovery of similar pottery found in both places from the Għar Dalam phase, it has been suggested that the first colonists were specifically from the area of Agrigento; however, it is currently unknown exactly where in Sicily the farmers came from. They are thought to have first lived in caves on the outskirts of what is now San Lawrenz.
Gozo was an important place for cultural evolution, and during the Neolithic period the Ġgantija temples were built; they are amongst the world's oldest free-standing structures, as well as the world's oldest religious structures. The temple's name is Maltese for "belonging to the giants", because legend in Maltese and Gozitan folklore says the temples were built by giants. Another important Maltese archaeological site in Gozo, which dates back to the Neolithic period, is the Xagħra Stone Circle. Also, native tradition and certain ancient Greek historians (notably Euhemerus and Callimachus) maintain that Gozo is the island Homer described as Ogygia, home of the nymph Calypso. Diodorus Siculus writes that the island had many well harbours.
Gozo was occupied by the Carthaginians, who built a temple to Astarte on the islands.
At some point in time most probably it fell to the Greeks, because of local coins on the island with the Greek inscription ΓΑΥΛΙΤΩΝ. It was probably annexed by Rome around 218 BC and minted its own bronze coins in the 1st century BC. These feature Astarte's head with a crescent obverse and a warrior, a star, and the legend Gaulitōn (Ancient Greek: ΓΑΥΛΙΤΩΝ) reverse.
In 1530, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V gifted the island along with Malta to the Knights Hospitalier.
In July 1551, the Ottomans under Sinan Pasha and Dragut invaded and ravaged Gozo, enslaving most of its 5,000 inhabitants, taking them to Tarhuna Wa Msalata in Libya. Their departure port in Gozo was Mġarr ix-Xini. The island of Gozo was repopulated between 1565 and 1580 by mainland Maltese, undertaken by the Knights of Malta. …