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..
The island of 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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