[3] The Knights Hospitaller apparently discovered what is popularly known as the Maltese fungus growing on the rock's flat top.

Grand Master Pinto decreed the Rock out of bounds in 1746; trespassers risked a three-year spell as oarsmen in the Knights' galleys.

He posted a permanent guard there and even built a precarious cable-car basket from the rock to the mainland, 50 metres (160 ft) away.

[8] The sunset can be photographed through the opening in Fungus Rock, but only from the inlet anchorage, and only during seasons when the sun descends the right way.

Media related to Fungus Rock at Wikimedia Commons Cave dive sites: