K - Geography, Population, Art and Culture

pop (2000e) 5040; area 301 km²/116 sq mi. Mountainous, elongated island of the Dodecanese group, E Greece, in the Aegean Sea, between Rhodes and the E end of Crete; length 48 km/30 mi; rises to 1216 m/3989 ft; capital, Pigadhia; numerous bathing beaches.

see also List of traditional Greek place names) is the second largest of the Greek Dodecanese islands, in southeast Aegean sea.

Geography

The island is located about 29.4 miles south-west of Rhodes, in that part of the Mediterranean which was called, after it, the "Carpathian Sea" (Carpathium Mare).

Karpathos is comprised of 10 villages. All villages preserve intensively the traditional style of the island. In the South East of the island you can find Pigadia (Karpathos), capital and main port of the island. In the North one can find Mesochori, Spoa and Olympos the last village in the North of the island, of great folkloric and architectural interest.There are 2 ports in the island ,one is in the town of Karpathos and the other one is in the north of the island next to Olymbos named Diafani .The boats come 3 times a week from Creta and Rhodes.There is airport with everyday flights from Athens and Rhodes 3 times a day .Charters flights come from April to November from all Europe.Also there is a small boat to Kasos everyday from FINIKI port near to Arkassa village,and an other one from Karpathos to Diafani(in the summer time)

Population

The latest estimate of the island's permanent population is around 6000 people. This number more than doubles in the summer months as many Karpathians with their families come to the island for their vacation. Also, taking into consideration the number of tourists that visit, there can be up to 20,000 people on the island during the summer months. Ottoman rule ended when the Italians conquered the island, together with the whole Dodecanese, during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-12.

Despite such a scattered past, the last half-century has been pivotal in charactering the island. Karpathos today has a significant Greek-American constituency who have returned to their beloved island and invested heavily.

Art and Culture

Karpathos is very conservative, both in attitude and culturally. This entails that many arts lost in the rest of Greece, or only shown as part of the usual folklore exhibitions, are alive and well on the island.

The traditional musical instruments are lauto (lute), lyra (lyre) and tsambouni (a primitive version of the bagpipe) as on other Dodecanese Islands in different combinations.

Local fine arts are viewed with suspicion by locals who don't understand the foreigners amazement and pilgrimages to exhibitions of local artists.

Known far over the borders of Karpathos are Minás Vlahos and Jannis Hapsis.

Other artists “imported” to the island are the British writer Roger Jinkinson (Tales from a Greek Island, September 2005 ISBN: 1 84327 997 5 ), the American writer and editor Roberta Beach Jacobson and the German writer and photographer Alf B.