From the valley below, each pier and mast merge to look like a single needle with an elongated eye: Foster's drawings, in fact, depict a thread piercing the eye of a needle.
Though Jesus once said it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven, "it is a misreading of Catholic theology to think that one cannot be a successful business person and a person of faith, " says Mr. Abela.
Deserters from the Austro-Hungarian army found this made it the perfect hideout - at the head of one valley the pathway passes through the 'eye' of a needle of rock, and from here foolhardy Imperial Army inspectors could be dispatched with a cosh over the head.
Several etchings from James Abbott McNeill Whistler's "Thames Series" (1859) reveal the artist's canny eye for selective detail and exquisite finesse with an etcher's needle.