60 Fun Facts About Crete

Where does Crete rank among the islands of the Mediterranean by size?

Only Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus and Corsica are bigger; it is Greece's largest and most populous island.

On which coast of the island does the capital, Heraklion, stand?

It is also the fourth-largest city in Greece.

Which sea lies to the south of Crete?

The Sea of Crete lies to the north, forming the southern edge of the Aegean.

Roughly how long is Crete from west to east?

It spans three degrees of longitude but only half a degree of latitude.

Which god is Crete famous as the birthplace of in Greek mythology?

The Psychro Cave in the Dikti mountains claims the honour; the nymphs fed him the milk of the goat Amalthea.

Which cavern in the Dikti mountains is reputed to be where Rhea gave birth to Zeus?

It sits above the Lasithi Plateau, famous for its white-sailed windmills.

What was the name of Europe's first advanced civilisation, centred on Crete from about 2700 BC?

It was named by Arthur Evans after the mythical King Minos, and was overrun by the Mycenaeans around 1450 BC.

Who began large-scale excavations at Knossos in 1900 and rebuilt parts of the palace in concrete?

A Cretan merchant, Minos Kalokairinos, had dug there briefly in 1878-79.

Knossos is often described as what?

The site was occupied from the Neolithic into the first millennium AD.

The complicated plan of the palace at Knossos was remembered in Greek myth as what?

Some link the word to the labrys, the Minoan double axe.

Which creature, half man and half bull, did Theseus slay at Knossos?

Minos had Daedalus build the labyrinth to hold it; Daedalus and Icarus later fled Crete on wings.

What acrobatic ritual, shown in Minoan frescoes, is thought to have had religious meaning?

Snake goddess figurines are another famous Minoan image.

Which Minoan script remains undeciphered?

Its Mycenaean successor was cracked by Michael Ventris in 1952.

Who deciphered the Mycenaean successor script in 1952, showing it recorded an early form of Greek?

He was an architect and self-taught linguist building on the work of the American classicist Alice Kober.

What is the famous object found at Phaistos in 1908?

Its 45 signs, pressed in a spiral, were stamped into the clay before firing; it is in Heraklion's archaeological museum.

The volcanic eruption of which island is tied up with the dating of Minoan decline?

It buried Akrotiri, but sites like Knossos carried on for a time.

The Gortyn code, carved on a wall in southern Crete in the 5th century BC, is what?

Its 600 lines are written boustrophedon, alternating direction like an ox ploughing.

Which Byzantine general retook Crete from the Arabs in 961?

An Andalusian Arab emirate had ruled the island for about a century and a half.

Under Venetian rule the island and its capital were known by what name?

The name derived from the Arabic Rabd al-Khandaq, the emirate's capital at modern Heraklion.

How long did the Ottoman siege of the Venetian capital last before it fell in 1669?

It ranks among the longest sieges in history; Francesco Morosini finally surrendered with 3,600 fit men.

Which Crete-born painter, Domenikos Theotokopoulos, is known by a nickname meaning 'The Greek'?

He trained as an icon painter of the Cretan school and settled in Toledo in 1577.

The 17th-century Cretan verse romance Erotokritos was written by whom?

Chortatzis, from Rethymno, was the other great dramatist of the Cretan Renaissance.

How did the shipowner Daskalogiannis, leader of the 1770 Sfakia revolt, die?

He is said to have endured it in silence; Chania's airport is named after him.

What did the defenders of Arkadi Monastery do in November 1866 rather than surrender to the Ottomans?

Some 943 people, mostly women and children, had taken refuge there; the 'Holocaust of Arkadi' is commemorated on 8 November.

What was the political status of the island from 1898 to 1913?

Prince George of Greece arrived as its first high commissioner; union with Greece came in December 1913.

In which year did Crete formally become part of Greece?

Cretan minister Eleftherios Venizelos had already led the Theriso revolt for union in 1905.

Which Cretan-born statesman was eight-time Greek prime minister and gave his name to Athens airport?

He was born at Mournies near Chania in 1864.

What made the German attack on Crete in May 1941 a landmark in military history?

Codenamed Operation Mercury, it was also the first mass use of Fallschirmjäger paratroops.

What was the German codename for the invasion of Crete?

It began on 20 May 1941 and the Allies were evacuated from Sfakia by 1 June.

Which New Zealand general commanded the Allied forces on Crete in 1941?

He had Ultra intelligence from decrypted Enigma messages, the first time the Allies used it significantly.

What was Hitler's reaction to the heavy German losses on Crete?

Cretan civilians had fought alongside the Allies, and reprisals followed at Kondomari and Kandanos.

Which airfield's fall on the second day of the battle let the Germans fly in reinforcements?

Communication failures and Allied hesitation lost the field in western Crete.

What is the highest mountain on Crete?

It rises to 2,456 m, just three metres above the highest of the White Mountains.

How long is the Samaria Gorge, which runs down to the south coast at Agia Roumeli?

At the Gates it narrows to four metres between walls almost 300 metres high.

The Samaria Gorge became a national park in 1962 chiefly to protect which animal?

The goat survives on the White Mountains cliffs and a few offshore islets.

Which islet off Crete, a Venetian fortress, served as a leper colony from 1904 to 1957?

Locals called it 'the island of the living dead'; Victoria Hislop's novel The Island made it famous.

What gives the beaches of Elafonisi their famous pink colour?

The islet also commemorates an 1824 massacre and a 1907 shipwreck.

The Balos lagoon lies between the Cretan coast and which 'pirate island'?

The Gramvousa peninsula is at the far northwest of the island.

Which island 48 km south of Hora Sfakion is described as the southernmost point of Europe?

The Region of Crete is the southernmost of Greece's 13 regions.

What is tsikoudia, often called raki in eastern Crete?

It is 40 to 65 percent alcohol and distilled from what is left after pressing grapes for wine.

The Cretan salad dakos is built on a soaked slice of what?

It is topped with chopped tomatoes, mizithra or feta and olive oil.

Which endemic herb, once believed to heal wounds, grows only on the island?

Malotira, or ironwort, is another mountain herb the islanders brew as tea.

Which pear-shaped, three-stringed bowed instrument is central to the island's music?

It descends from the medieval Byzantine lyra and once carried hawk bells on its bow.

What are mantinades?

The Pentozali is the island's best-known dance.

What is the Pentozali?

It is the most noted of the island's many indigenous dances.

Which Cretan writer, born in 1883, wrote Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ?

He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in nine different years and the island's main airport bears his name.

How does Kazantzakis's epitaph begin?

It continues 'I fear nothing. I am free.'

Who played Zorba in the 1964 film Zorba the Greek, shot on Crete?

Michael Cacoyannis directed, Mikis Theodorakis wrote the score, and the film popularised the sirtaki dance.

Which folk dance did the film Zorba the Greek make world-famous?

The film won three Oscars, including Best Supporting Actress for Lila Kedrova.

Which Cretan city was the island's capital until 1971?

Its Venetian harbour and 1864 lighthouse are its best-known landmarks; the city stands on ancient Kydonia.

The white-sailed windmills of the Lasithi Plateau were built from the 1920s for what purpose?

There were once around 10,000; most have given way to diesel and electric pumps.

Which fortress dominates the old Venetian harbour of the island's capital?

Venice bought the city in 1204 and rebuilt its walls and bastions.

What was the 2021 population of the Region of Crete, roughly?

It is the fifth most populous of Greece's 13 regions.

How many peaks above 2,000 metres do the White Mountains (Lefka Ori) contain?

The Samaria Gorge cuts through the range down to the south coast.

How narrow does Crete get at its thinnest point, near Ierapetra?

At its widest the island spans 60 km, and its coastline runs to about 1,046 km.

Which Crusader was first granted Crete after the sack of Constantinople in 1204?

He sold his claim to Venice, but rival Genoa seized the island and Venice did not secure it until 1212.

Which of these animals was native to Pleistocene Crete?

Dwarf hippos, dwarf mammoths, dwarf deer and giant flightless owls also lived on the island.

Which apostle, said to have lived on Crete for two years, was later credited with clearing it of dangerous creatures?

Ancient Greeks had instead credited Hercules, who carried off the Cretan bull to honour Zeus's birthplace.

Crete's second international airport, at Chania, is named after whom?

Heraklion's airport honours Nikos Kazantzakis; the smaller Sitia airport is the island's third.

Crete lies roughly how far south of the Peloponnese?

Anatolia is about 300 km to the northeast, and the island bounds the southern edge of the Aegean.