Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous island of Greece and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus and Corsica, with an area of 8,450 square kilometres. It lies about 100 kilometres south of the Peloponnese and about 300 kilometres southwest of Anatolia, bounding the southern edge of the Aegean Sea, with the Sea of Crete to the north and the Libyan Sea to the south. The island is predominantly mountainous, and a range crossing it from west to east includes its highest point, Mount Ida, and the White Mountains with 30 summits above 2,000 metres, as well as the Samaria Gorge. Crete was the centre of Europe's first advanced civilization, the Minoans, from 2700 to 1420 BCE, and was later ruled by Rome, the Byzantine Empire, the Venetian Republic and the Ottoman Empire before becoming part of Greece in December 1913. Its capital and largest city is Heraklion.