| CRETE
- Snow capped mountains, stunning gorges, delightful beaches, aromatic
valleys, bustling nightlife and of course, birthplace of Minoan Civilization.
Crete - largest of all the islands - offers a bewildering variety of
choices. Direct flights bring in visitors from all over the world but
the island is large enough to cope and offers many quiet, unspoiled
hideaways. Indeed Crete feels more like a distinct land than an island;
something for absolutely everybody. |
Crete
is one of the 13 regions of Greece. It is the biggest island in Greece
and the second biggest after Cyprus of the East Mediterranean. It lies
at the Southern Aegean Sea and at the crossroads of three continents Europe,
Asia and Africa covering an area of 8,336 square kilometres and a population
of over 800,000 according to the 2000 survey. The length of the island
is 260 km, but the shore-length is 1,046 km. The biggest width is 60 km
from the Dion cape to the Lithinon cape, while the smallest is 12 km and
is called isthmus of Ierapetra. A high mountain range crosses the island
from West to East, formed by three different groups of mountains. To the
West the White Mountains 2,452 m, in the middle the mountain of Idi Psiloritis-2.456
m and to the East the mountain of Dikti 2.148 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.
It consists of four prefectures: Chania, Rethimno, Heraklion and Lasithi.
It has three significant airports, Nikos Kazantzakis at Heraklion, military
airport Daskalogiannis at Chania and the new Public Airport will open
not before mid 2005 in Sitia. Among its principal cities are Heraklion
Iraklion, Chania, Rethimno, Ierapetra, Agios Nikolaos, Sitia.
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