Marsaxlokk derives its name from the Arabic word marsa, meaning Harbour, and Maltese for the south-easterly Mediterranean wind, the Xlokk (Sirocco in Italian). Marsaxlokk, with its sheltered habour, was an easy landing place for pirates and the Ottoman Turks.
It was here that the Ottoman Turks landed for an attack which ended in the Great Siege of 1565.
Napoleon's army landed here in 1798; and in recent times, the Harbour was the scene of the Bush-Gorbachev Summit,1989.