Crete-Creta island is one of the most popular travel destinations worldwide with an 1,000 kilometer-long coastline dotted with numerous coves, bays and peninsulas, which afford a multitude of soft, sandy beaches along the beautifully blue Mediterranean Sea .
CreteGreek: Κρήτη, transliteration is the largest of the Greek islands . For centuries the island was known by its Italian name Candia, from the medieval name of its capital Heraklion, Chandax In Classical Latin it was called Creta and in Turkish Girit.
Crete was the center of the Minoan civilization (ca. 2600–1400 BC), the oldest Greek civilization. Crete is also a mix of large tourist resorts, small fishing villages, remote settlements and cities such as the Minoan sites of Knossos and Phaistos , the Venetian old city and port of Chania and the castle at Rethymno .And finaly Iraklio (Heraklion) the dynamic city, the fifth largest in Greece , which have been inhabited for almost 8000 years .
Its remarkable history is evident across the island, from the ruins of the Minoan palace of Knossos to the Venetian fortresses of Rethymo; from old mosques and Byzantine monasteries to the cave that is the legendary birthplace of Zeus. The Venetian port of Hania in Western
Today Crete is one of the thirteen peripheries of Greece and a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece. Crete has far more endemic plants than any other island in Europe While it retains its own local cultural traits (such as its own music and dialect), Cretans identify themselves as Greeks.
