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CRETE, GREECE - General Information, Places to Visit
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GREECE,
CRETE - INFORMATION
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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.
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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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