Malia on Crete

2 November 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Malia and Bay of Malia © Taxiarchos228

Malia and Bay of Malia © Taxiarchos228

Malia or Mallia is a coastal town and a former municipality in the northeast corner of the Heraklion regional unit in Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reforms it is part of the municipality of Hersonissos, of which it is a municipal unit. It lies 34 kilometres (21 miles) east of Heraklion, the Cretan main city. The town (pop. 3,224 in 2011) was the seat of the municipality of Mália (pop. 5,433). The municipal unit also includes the villages of Mochos (825), Krasi (147), and Stalida (1,237), and has a total land area of 60.720 square kilometres (23.444 sq mi). The town is a tourist attraction, primarily for its significant archaeological site and nightlife. The Minoan town ruins lie three km east of the site and cover an area of approximately 1 square kilometre (0.4 sq mi). The original name for the town is not known.   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…

Koroni in Messenia

24 February 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  13 minutes

Koroni harbour © C messier/cc-by-sa-4.0

Koroni harbour © C messier/cc-by-sa-4.0

Koroni or Corone is a town and a former municipality in Messenia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Pylos-Nestoras, of which it is a municipal unit. Known as Corone by the Venetians and Ottomans, the town of Koroni (pop. 1,397 in 2011) sits on the southwest peninsula of the Peloponnese on the Gulf of Messinia in southern Greece, 56 km (35 mi) by road southwest of Kalamata. The town is nestled on a hill below a Venetian castle and reaches to the edge of the gulf. The town was the seat of the former municipality of Koróni, which has a land area of 105 km² (41 sq mi) and a population of 4,366 (2011 census). The municipal unit consists of the communities Akritochori, Charakopio, Chrysokellaria, Falanthi, Kaplani, Kompoi, Koroni, Vasilitsi, Vounaria and Iamia. It also includes the uninhabited island of Venétiko.   read more…

Chios in der Nördlichen Ägäis

29 September 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

Port of Lagada © FrontierNG/cc-by-sa-4.0

Port of Lagada © FrontierNG/cc-by-sa-4.0

Chios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the northern Aegean Sea. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. Chios is notable for its exports of mastic gum and its nickname is “the Mastic Island”. Tourist attractions include its medieval villages and the 11th-century monastery of Nea Moni, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was also the site of the Chios massacre, in which tens of thousands of Greeks on the island were massacred by Ottoman troops during the Greek War of Independence in 1822.   read more…

Eleusis on the Saronic Gulf

25 September 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, European Union, European Capital of Culture Reading Time:  7 minutes

General view of sanctuary of Demeter and Kore and the Telesterion center for the Eleusinian Mysteries © flickr.com - Carole Raddato/cc-by-sa-2.0

General view of sanctuary of Demeter and Kore and the Telesterion center for the Eleusinian Mysteries © flickr.com – Carole Raddato/cc-by-sa-2.0

Eleusis is a suburban town and municipality in West Attica Regional unit in Greece. It is situated about 18 kilometres (11 miles) northwest from the centre of Athens and is part of its metropolitan area. It is located in the Thriasian Plain, at the northernmost end of the Saronic Gulf. North of Eleusis are Mandra and Magoula, while Aspropyrgos is to the northeast.   read more…

Maximos Mansion in Athens

18 August 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

© Rakoon

© Rakoon

The Maximos Mansion has been the official seat of the Prime Minister of Greece since 1982. It is located in downtown Athens, Greece, near Syntagma Square. The building houses the offices of the Head of the Greek Government, but it is the residence of the Prime Minister. The Maximos Mansion is located at Herodes Atticus Street 19, next to the Presidential Mansion and the National Garden of Athens.   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…

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…

Kalymnos in the southern Aegean

27 November 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Cruising near Pserimos © kallerna/cc-by-sa-3.0

Cruising near Pserimos © kallerna/cc-by-sa-3.0

Kalymnos is a Greek island and municipality in the southeastern Aegean Sea. It belongs to the Dodecanese and is located to the west of the peninsula of Bodrum, between the islands of Kos (south, at a distance of 12 km (7 mi)) and Leros (north, at a distance of less than 2 km (1 mi)): the latter is linked to it through a series of islets. Kalymnos lies between two to five hours away by sea from Rhodes.   read more…

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