Crete - History, Geography, Climate, Economy, Famous Cretans, Cities, Political organization, Tourism

pop (2000e) 561 000; area 8336 km²/3218 sq mi. Island region of Greece, in the Mediterranean Sea, S of the Cyclades island group; length 256 km/159 mi; width 14–60 km/9–37 mi; largest of the Greek islands and fifth largest in the Mediterranean; White Mts (W) rise to 2452 m/8044 ft; Idhi Oros (C) rise to the highest point of the island, Psiloritis (2456 m/8058 ft); N coastline deeply indented; evidence of settlement from c.6000 BC; important Minoan civilization, c.2000 BC; ruled at various times by Greeks, Romans, Turks, and Arabs; passed to Greece in 1913; German occupation in World War 2, after airborne invasion (1941); capital, Heraklion; other chief towns, Chania, Agios Nikolaos; two universities (1973, 1977); fruit, olive oil, wine, sheep, goats, tourism; ancient sites at Knossos, Gortys, Lato, Phaistos.

Crete Periphery Περιφέρεια Κρήτης
Capital	Heraklion
Prefectures	Chania Heraklion Lasithi Rethymno
Population	623,666 (2005)
Area	8,336 km²
Population density	75/km²
Website	www.crete-region.gr

Crete (Greek: Κρήτη Kríti;

Tourist attractions in Crete include archeological sites at Knossos, Phaistos, Gortys and many other places, the Venetian castle in Rethymno, the Samaria Gorge and many other minor gorges (Agia Irini, Aradena, etc).

Crete was the center of the Minoan civilization (ca.

History

Geography

Crete is one of the 13 regions into which Greece is divided. Crete has an elongated shape - 260 km from east to west and 60 km at its widest, although the island is narrower at certain points, such as in the region close to Ierapetra where it has a width of only 12 km. To the north Crete borders with the Sea of Crete (Greek: Κρητικό Πέλαγος), to the south it is bordered by the Libyan Sea (Greek: Λιβυκό Πέλαγος), to the west the Myrtoon Sea, to the east the Karpathion Sea.

Crete is extremely mountainous and is defined by a high mountain range crossing it from West to East, formed by three different groups of mountains. Thripti (1489 m)

These mountains gifted Crete with fertile plateaus like Lasithi, Omalos and Nidha, caves like Diktaion and Idaion cave, and gorges like the famous Gorge of Samaria.

Climate

Crete straddles two climatic zones, the Mediterranean and the North African, mainly falling within the former. The exception can be the south coast, including the Messara plain and Asterousia mountains, which fall in the North African climatic zone and thus enjoys significantly more sunny days and high temperatures during the summer, as well as very mild winters—consequently in southern Crete date palms bear fruit and swallows stay year-long, instead of migrating to Africa.

Economy

The economy of Crete, which was mainly based on farming, started changing visibly during the 1970s.

The island has three significant airports, Nikos Kazantzakis at Heraklion, the military airport Daskalogiannis at Chania and a new public airport in Sitia.

Famous Cretans

Odysseas Elitis (born 1911) poet and representative of Greek Modernism. Giannis Markopoulos born in 1939, music composer Minos, an ancient, legendary King of Crete Psarantonis (born Antonis Xilouris), lyra player and brother of Nikos Xilouris.

Cities

Crete's principal cities are:

Heraklion (Iraklion or Candia) (137,711 inhabitants) Chania (Haniá) (53,373 inhabitants) Rethymno (31,687 inhabitants) Ierapetra (23,707 inhabitants) Agios Nikolaos (19,462 inhabitants) Sitia (14,338 inhabitants)

Political organization

The island of Crete is a periphery of Greece, consisting of four prefectures (Greek: νομοί):

Chania Heraklion Lasithi Rethymno

For amateur radio purposes it is considered to be a separate "entity," ITU prefix SV9.

Tourism

Crete is one of the most popular holiday destinations in Greece. This increase in tourism is reflected on the number of hotel beds, which increased in Crete by 53% from 1986 to 1991 while in the rest of Greece the increase was 25%.

The plans for a containers' harbour in Southern Crete

The Ministry of Mercantile Marine is ready to support the agreement between Greece, South Korea, Dubai Ports Worldwide and China for the construction of an enormous transit station with international requirements in southern Crete.

The design of the port is to confiscate and flatten 850 ha of land, so that more than two million containers to be handled annually in their way to Eastern Mediterranean, the Adriatic Sea, the Black Sea and Greece. There will be a relevant formation of the piers, for handling the daily arrival of hundreds of ships, some of which will be of such a huge size that never have been seen even in the big enough port of the biggest city of Crete and one of the biggest cities of Greece, i.e. It is easy to comprehend that this specific project has nothing to do with the former proposed port in the area of Messara, which has vaguely been reported as the gate of southern Crete.