Naxos in the Cyclades

27 September 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Naxos Port © Atle1963a/cc-by-sa-3.0

Naxos Port © Atle1963a/cc-by-sa-3.0

Naxos is a Greek island and the largest of the Cyclades. It was the centre of the archaic Cycladic culture. The island is famous as a source of emery, a rock rich in corundum, which until modern times was one of the best abrasives available.   read more…

Amorgos Island in the Cyclades

6 September 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Lagada © Zde/cc-by-sa-4.0

Lagada © Zde/cc-by-sa-4.0

Amorgos is the easternmost island of the Cyclades island group and the nearest island to the neighboring Dodecanese island group in Greece. Along with 16 neighboring islets, the largest of which (by land area) is Nikouria Island, it comprises the municipality of Amorgos, which has a land area of 126.346 square kilometres (48.782 square miles) and at the 2021 census had a population of 1,961.   read more…

Poros in the Saronic Gulf

12 July 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  4 minutes

Docks and the iconic clock tower © flickr.com - Julien Seguinot/cc-by-sa-2.0

Docks and the iconic clock tower © flickr.com – Julien Seguinot/cc-by-sa-2.0

Poros is a small Greek island-pair in the southern part of the Saronic Gulf, about 58 km (36 miles; 31 nautical miles) south of the port of Piraeus and separated from the Peloponnese by a 200 m (656 ft) wide sea channel, with the town of Galatas on the mainland across the strait. Its surface area is about 31 square kilometres (12 sq mi) and it has 3,261 inhabitants (2021). The ancient name of Poros was Pogon. Like other ports in the Saronic, it is a popular weekend destination for Athenian travellers.   read more…

Alaçatı in Turkey

21 December 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  9 minutes

© panoramio.com - Nihat1988/cc-by-3.0

© panoramio.com – Nihat1988/cc-by-3.0

Alaçatı is a part of İzmir on the Western coast of Turkey, often noted for its architecture, vineyards, windmills, and sea. Alaçatı is one of the most traditional towns in Turkey, with stone houses, narrow streets, boutique hotels and restaurants with tables on the streets. The area is also home to the Alaçatı yacht marina and the famous Port Alaçatı development, created by the French architect Francois Spoerry and his son, Yves Spoerry.   read more…

Andros in Greece

9 May 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Batsi © flickr.com - linmtheu/cc-by-2.0

Batsi © flickr.com – linmtheu/cc-by-2.0

Andros is the northernmost island of the Greek Cyclades archipelago, about 10 km (6 mi) southeast of Euboea, and about 3 km (2 mi) north of Tinos. It is nearly 40 km (25 mi) long, and its greatest breadth is 16 km (10 mi). It is for the most part mountainous, with many fruitful and well-watered valleys. The municipality, which includes the island Andros and several small, uninhabited islands, has an area of 380 km² (146.719 sq mi). The largest towns are Andros (town), Gavrio, Batsi, and Ormos Korthiou.   read more…

Antiparos in the Cyclades

8 February 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Castro architecture © Dimorsitanos/cc-by-sa-3.0

Castro architecture © Dimorsitanos/cc-by-sa-3.0

Antiparos is a small island in the southern Aegean, at the heart of the Cyclades, which is less than one nautical mile (1.9 km) from Paros, the port to which it is connected with a local ferry. Saliagos island is the most ancient settlement in the Cyclades, and Despotiko, an uninhabited island in the southwest of Antiparos, is a place of great archaeological importance.   read more…

Theme Week Turkey

18 April 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  2 minutes

Levent business district in Istanbul © Derrick Brutel/cc-by-sa-4.0

Levent business district in Istanbul © Derrick Brutel/cc-by-sa-4.0

Turkey is a transcontinental Eurasian country located mainly on the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeastern Europe. East Thrace, the part of Turkey in Europe, is separated from Anatolia by the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus and the Dardanelles (collectively called the Turkish Straits). Istanbul, which straddles Europe and Asia, is the largest city in the country, while Ankara is the capital. Turkey is bordered on its northwest by Greece and Bulgaria; north by the Black Sea; northeast by Georgia; east by Armenia, the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan and Iran; southeast by Iraq; south by Syria and the Mediterranean Sea; and west by the Aegean Sea. Approximately 70 to 80 percent of the country’s citizens identify as Turkish, while Kurds are the largest minority, at between 15 to 20 percent of the population.   read more…

Corinth Canal in Greece

20 September 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  13 minutes

© Nicholas Hartmann/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Nicholas Hartmann/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Corinth Canal is a canal that connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and separates the Peloponnese from the Greek mainland, arguably making the peninsula an island. The builders dug the canal through the Isthmus at sea level; no locks are employed. It is 6.4 kilometres (4 mi) in length and only 21.4 metres (70 ft) wide at its base, making it impassable for most modern ships. It now has little economic importance. The canal was initially proposed in classical times and a failed effort was made to build it in the 1st century CE. Construction started in 1881 but was hampered by geological and financial problems that bankrupted the original builders. It was completed in 1893 but, due to the canal’s narrowness, navigational problems and periodic closures to repair landslides from its steep walls, it failed to attract the level of traffic expected by its operators. It is now used mainly for tourist traffic.   read more…

Theme Week Turkish Riviera

25 September 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  6 minutes

Harbour in Kalkan © Kitkatcrazy

Harbour in Kalkan © Kitkatcrazy

The Turkish Riviera (also known popularly as the Turquoise Coast) is an area of southwest Turkey encompassing the provinces of Antalya and Muğla, and to a lesser extent Aydın, southern İzmir and western Mersin. The combination of a favorable climate, warm sea, mountainous scenery, fine beaches along more than a thousand kilometers of shoreline along the Aegean and Mediterranean waters, and abundant natural and archeological points of interest makes this stretch of Turkey’s coastline a popular national and international tourist destination. Many cities, towns and villages in the area are internationally known, such as Alanya, Antalya, Bodrum, Çeşme, Fethiye, Kalkan, Kaş, Kemer, Kuşadası, Marmaris and Side.   read more…

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