The Greek Islands are a collection of over 6,000[1]islands and islets that belong to Greece. Only 227 of the islands are inhabited, and only 78 of those have more than 100 inhabitants. The large body of land in southern Greece, Peloponnese, is not a Greek island as it is connected to the mainland by the small Isthmus of Corinth landbridge.
The largest Greek island by area is the 260km long island of Crete, located at the southern edge of the Aegean Sea, and serves as an administrative division (periphery) in of itself. Crete to the south, along with Greece to the north and west, and Turkey to the east, make up the rough boundary of the Aegean Sea. The second largest greek island is Euboea at 150km long. Euboea is located parallel and close to the east coast of the Greek mainland, and is administered as part of the central Greece periphery. After the third and fourth largest Greek Islands, Lesbos and Rhodes, both near the coast of Turkey, the rest of the islands are at least two thirds of the area of Rhodes or smaller.
Most of the Greek islands are in groupings located within the Aegean Sea or on its southern edge. A final grouping, the Ionian Islands, is located to the west of the mainland in the Ionian Sea, although one of these islands, Kythira, is off the southern tip of the mainland, but still considered part of the Ionian Islands.
The Aegean island groupings comprise: The North Aegean islands, a loose grouping off the west coast of Turkey including Lesbos. The Dodecanese, another loose collection in the south east, between Crete and Turkey, centred on Rhodes. The Sporades, a small tight group off the coast of Euboea. The Cyclades are a large but dense collection occupying the central part of the Aegean Sea. The Argo-Saronic Islands are near the southern mainland near Athens.
The island groupings are administered as the Ionian Islands periphery (except Kythira), and the North Aegean and the South Aegean peripheries, with some islands near the coast administered from the adjacent mainland periphery.
Encyclopedia
top
