Game of Thrones Malta: Filming Locations You Can Still Visit

What Game of Thrones filmed in Malta, and which series it covered

Malta carried the show's warmer settings in series one, among them King's Landing and the Dothraki Sea, with shooting shifting elsewhere from series two. The Maltese sites are a fixed, finite set tied to those early episodes. If your mental picture of the show is Cersei's later reign or the wars in the North, none of that was filmed here.

The locations split neatly by geography. Mdina and Rabat sit in the island's interior, Valletta and the Three Cities line the Grand Harbour, Attard and Verdala lie in the centre, and Gozo holds the wedding site and the cliff scenery. Grouping them this way saves you criss-crossing the island, which matters because traffic on a densely built island can make short distances slow. The harbour cities grew out of the sixteenth-century siege, and our Malta history pages explain the fortifications you will be walking past.

Mdina: the King's Landing gate and Pjazza Mesquita

Mdina, the walled city in the interior, served as King's Landing in series one. Catelyn Stark and Ser Rodrik ride across the bridge and through the main gate into the city, and inside they are stopped by guards in Pjazza Mesquita. Both are easy to find on foot: the gate is the obvious entrance to the old city, and the small square sits a short walk beyond it.

Allow time beyond the two filming spots, because Mdina rewards slow walking: the streets are narrow, the stone is warm-coloured and the walls give views over the island. The city is roughly 25 minutes by car from Valletta, which makes it an easy half-day rather than a full expedition. Pair it with Rabat next door rather than treating it as a standalone stop.

Valletta: Eagle Street and the view to Fort Ricasoli from the Upper Barrakka Gardens

In Valletta, Eagle Street was used for Arya's attempt to swap a pigeon for bread on the streets of King's Landing. It is a short lane in the grid of straight streets, and you can walk it in a couple of minutes on the way between the city's main sights.

From the Upper Barrakka Gardens you look across the Grand Harbour to Fort Ricasoli at Kalkara, whose distinctive pillars became the main gate of King's Landing. Entry to the fort is not allowed, so the gardens are the practical way to see it, and a harbour boat trip gives you a closer look at the walls from the water. The traditional Maltese boat known as the Dgħajsa is one way to make that crossing.

Fort Ricasoli in Kalkara: the King's Landing gate seen from the water

Fort Ricasoli, in the Kalkara area on the west side of the Grand Harbour, is the site whose plaited pillars stood in for the King's Landing gate. Access is restricted, and a harbour crossing is the way to appreciate its scale, with the gate as the focal point of the trip. Treat it as a viewing stop, not a site you tour inside.

The fort has appeared in other productions as well, including Troy and Gladiator, so filming can affect access on any given day. Check locally before planning a boat trip that focuses on the fort.

Fort St Angelo in Birgu and Fort Manoel on Manoel Island

Across the water in Birgu, also called Vittoriosa, Fort St Angelo stood in for the maze-like corridors of the Red Keep, where Arya follows a cat in the fifth episode of series one. The fort sits about three kilometres from Fort Ricasoli, so the two fit into one harbour-focused day. Birgu's lanes and waterfront make a natural place to slow down between stops.

Fort Manoel on Manoel Island, between Sliema and Valletta, was the setting for Ned Stark's execution in front of the Great Sept of Baelor. It is an eighteenth-century fortification with views over the water and gardens around it, which makes the contrast between the setting and the scene on screen unusually sharp.

San Anton Palace and Gardens at Attard

At Attard, in the centre of the island about fifteen kilometres from Valletta, San Anton Palace and its gardens were used for the Red Keep's gardens, including the moment the Starks arrive in King's Landing. The palace is the official residence of the President of Malta, so the grounds rather than the private interiors are what visitors see. The gardens themselves are a shaded place to break up a day of forts and walls.

Verdala Palace and the Rabat church cloister used for Red Keep scenes

Verdala Palace appears in the show as the house of Illyrio, where Daenerys and Viserys first meet Khal Drogo. In Rabat, the fifteenth-century cloister of the Church of St Dominic and the Blessed Virgin became a courtyard inside the Red Keep, the setting for Ned Stark's warning to Cersei. Rabat is about four kilometres from Mdina, so the two stops belong in the same outing.

These are working religious and official sites rather than film sets, so dress and behaviour should match the setting. Cover shoulders and knees for church visits, keep voices low in cloisters, and check whether a service is under way before stepping inside. Our guide to churches in Malta sets out the usual conventions for entering parish churches and cathedrals.

Gozo: the Azure Window site, where the Dothraki wedding was filmed

On Gozo, the Azure Window near Dwejra was the backdrop for the wedding of Daenerys and Khal Drogo. The natural arch collapsed in heavy storms in March 2017, so what you visit today is the site and its rocky coastline, not the arch that appeared on screen. Build this into your expectations rather than going in search of a landmark that is no longer standing.

For the show's desert effect, the crew covered the ground in mesh and sand, and the Maltese authorities were less than pleased with the outcome. It is a useful reminder that the landscape on screen was dressed and framed for a particular shot. The coastline around the site still gives you the scale and the light that made the location work.

Dingli Cliffs and the Mtahleb cliffs as Dothraki territory

The cliffs on Malta's west coast stood in for Dothraki territory: the Mtahleb cliffs were used for the scenes after Khal Drogo's collapse, when Daenerys leads the riders along the cliff edge, and the Dingli area also features among the filming locations. Both are exposed stretches of coast where the wind and the drop are the main features.

Go carefully near the edges and avoid midday, when the limestone reflects heat and light. Sturdy shoes and a windproof layer matter more here than at any of the urban stops, and there is little shade to fall back on.

Doing it yourself by bus or car versus a guided Game of Thrones tour

Doing it yourself works well for the urban sites: Mdina, Rabat and Valletta are compact, and you can walk the specific gate, square and street in each without a guide. Fort Ricasoli is viewed from the Upper Barrakka Gardens or the water rather than toured inside, so the main effort is the harbour crossing or the drive rather than the site itself. A car helps for Attard, Verdala and the west-coast cliffs, where stops are spread out and buses are slower. Malta's medieval and early modern story is worth reading up on before you go, and the Knights Hospitaller left most of the walls and forts on this route.

A guided tour earns its place if you want the locations explained and the driving handled, and half-day and longer options exist that combine the filming sites with other stops. The trade-off is fixed timing: you see what the itinerary covers and less of what you might otherwise linger over. If your priority is Mdina's lanes at dusk or a slow harbour crossing, build your own route instead.

Practical trade-offs: fort access, midday heat and closed sites

The biggest practical constraint is Fort Ricasoli, whose gate stood in for the King's Landing gate. Entry to the fort is not allowed, so it is viewed from the Upper Barrakka Gardens or from the water, and active filming can affect access nearby. Plan the harbour day around viewpoints and boats rather than around interiors, and treat the Azure Window site on Gozo as a collapsed landmark rather than a standing arch.

Heat is the second constraint. The cliff stops are exposed, and the stone both reflects light and holds warmth, so early mornings and late afternoons are more comfortable than the middle of the day. Carry water and wear a hat for the Gozo coast and the Dingli and Mtahleb cliffs, and save the shaded cloister at Rabat for the hot hours.

Treat the trail as a way through real places rather than a theme park. The sites are churches, palaces, forts and working gardens, and access can change for reasons that have nothing to do with the show. The Great Siege of Malta in 1565 is the reason so much of this coastline is walled, and it makes the harbour stops read differently once you know the story.

Which Game of Thrones sites should you actually build into your trip?

Build your route around three anchors: Mdina with Rabat for the King's Landing gate and the Red Keep cloister, the Grand Harbour for the Fort Ricasoli view and Birgu's Fort St Angelo, and Gozo for the Azure Window site. Add Attard and the cliffs if you have a car and time to spare. This gives you the scenes that matter without a day of driving between scattered points.

Before you go, look up current access details for the forts and any church you want to enter, since these are working sites and arrangements can change. Beyond that, the pleasure of this trail is how little it feels like one: the palaces and gardens are ordinary Maltese places that happened to stand in for Westeros.