Kastellorizo
Kastellorizo or Castellorizo, officially Megisti, is a Greek island and municipality of the Dodecanese in the Eastern Mediterranean. It lies roughly off the south coast of Turkey, about southeast of Athens and east of Rhodes, almost halfway between Rhodes and Antalya, and northwest of Cyprus. Kastellorizo is part of the Rhodes regional unit.
The island has become very popular in recent years among tourists looking for an isolated place in the Dodecanese, thanks also to the 1991 Oscar-winning movie Mediterraneo, by Gabriele Salvatores, which is set on the island during the Second World War.
Name and etymology
The island's official name, Megisti means "biggest" or "greatest", but at only in area, it is the smallest of the Dodecanese. The name refers to the fact that it is the largest island of its small archipelago. This name was used in antiquity, but is now rarely used in Greek, the name Kastellórizo being common since the 12th century. There are several hypotheses about the origin of this name. "Kastello" derives from the Italian word "castello", meaning "castle". There is some argument on the second part of the name. The arguments are centered on the following possible origins of the element rizo:- rizo being derived from the Italian word "rosso" meaning "red", either from the reddish color of the rocks of the island, the reddish color of the castle at sunset, or the color of the coat of arms of the Great Master of the Knights of Rhodes, Juan Fernández de Heredia, which stood above the gate of the castle; these arguments are widely discredited as the rocks on the island have no red pigment and the name Kastellorizo predates the Knights' arrival.
- rizo being a corruption of the word "Rhoge", one of the ancient appellations of the nearby island of Ro. If this is correct, the island's modern name is actually an amalgam of the separate island names "Castello" and "Rhoge".
- rizo being the actual Greek word "rizon" meaning "root", as researched by Greek Historian I.M. Hatzifotis, to signify the foothill or 'rizovouno' on which the island's original castle was built.
Physical geography
Kastellorizo is the easternmost Greek island and is situated in the Levantine Sea. It is the largest island of the homonym archipelago comprising the islands and islets of Agios Georgios, Agrielaia, Voutsakia, Megalo Mavro Poini, Mikro Mavro Poini, Polifados Ena, Polifados Dio, Ro, Savoura, Stroggili, Tragonera, Psomi and Psoradia. It lies about from the Anatolian coastal town of Kaş, more or less halfway between Rhodes and Antalya. Cyprus is about to the south-east. It is six kilometres long and three kilometres wide, with a surface of. It has a triangular shape, and is oriented from north-east to south-west. The island features three capes: Agios Stefanos, Nifti and Pounenti ; between the first two there is a wide and accommodating bay, the island's main harbor, where one finds the only town on the island. Cape Agios Stefanos, the nearest to Anatolia, is south of the modern Turkish town of Kaş. Cape Nifti lies some greater distance from the Anatolian coast. The island is mountainous, with high and steep coastlines, which become more difficult to access moving west. The soil is composed of limestone and produces only small amounts of olives, grapes and beans. On the island there is no source of drinking water. The Municipality of Megísti includes the offshore islands of Ro and Strongyli as well as several smaller islets. It has a total land area of.Nearby islands between Turkey and Kastellorizo
There are many islets in this area; Volos, near Kalkan, Ochendra, Furnachia, Prassonisi, Ro, Tragonera, Marathi, Strongyli, Dhassia, Alimentaria, Kekova and Psomi besides many rocks and cliffs. The most important among these islets is Kekova, not inhabited, which has an area of and faces the Turkish village of Kaleköy.All these islets were subject to dispute between Italy and Turkey until 1932. According to the 1932 Convention between Italy and Turkey all these islets except Ro, Strongyli and Psomi were assigned to Turkey.
The group of islands that includes Kastellorizo, Ro and Strongyli is very important to the Exclusive economic zone of Greece, since it is the easternmost territory of Greece and according to UNCLOS as well as customary international law, Greece can claim a large part of the Eastern Mediterranean basin.
Geography
The houses of the town are slender and characterised by wooden balconies and windows of the Anatolian type. Behind the waterfront, many houses are still in a ruinous state. At the entrance to the harbour, on the east side, stand the single-story remnants of the former Italian government house, erected in 1926 by the Italian architect Florestano Di Fausto, who also designed some of the most important buildings of the Italian period in Rhodes. Nearby is the island's former Ottoman mosque which dates from the second half of the 18th century and which has been restored and re-opened as a museum since 2007. From here starts the town's quay, which runs along all three sides of the harbour. The central square — Plateia Ethelondon Kastellórizou — lies at the midpoint of the eastern side, near the vessel dock. On the opposite side of the harbour one has a good view from this vantage of Pera Meria, the western quay, and the monasteries of Profitis Ilías and Aghia Triadha, the former now an army base.Above the quay on the eastern side is a pathway which leads to the Castle of the Knights. Of it remain the curtain wall, part of a square tower, the remains of a cylindrical tower at the east corner, and toward the sea another cylindrical tower. A Doric inscription, carved in the rock, attests to the existence of an earlier fortress here during Antiquity. Inside the tower there is a large covered cistern.
Ascending the steps on the eastern side of the town, one reaches the suburb of Horafia, where there is a square surrounded by the Church of St. George, with a high dome of Byzantine type, and the Cathedral of Saints Constantine and Helena. It has three naves divided by monolithic granite columns from the temple of Apollo Lykios in Patara. The columns carry ogival arches. Further east is the small bay known as Mandraki, the secondary harbour of the island.
West of the town, beyond the summit of the island known as Vigla, stands Palaiokastro, the island's ancient acropolis. This fortified elevation has classical origins : its plan is rectangular and measures. In its interior stand an ancient tower, built with square limestone blocks, and large water cisterns. Carved on the base of the castle there is also a Doric inscription, dating back to the 4th or 3rd centuries BC, with references to Megiste and its dependence on Rhodes. On the east side there are remnants of a gateway, or propylaea.
Since August 2020 the island also features an interactive Puzzle Museum, the first of its kind in Greece and one of the very few in the world.
Climate
Kastellorizo has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate. It has hot dry summers and exceptionally mild winters by European standards. Like in the Azores, average lows do not drop below 12.0 °C during the coldest months. According to the National Observatory of Athens station the lowest temperature ever recorded in coastal Kastellorizo is 4.5 °C and was recorded on 25 January 2022. Kastellorizo records on average 158 tropical nights per year and falls in 11a hardiness zone. After Lindos, the island records the highest average annual temperature in Greece with 21.9 °C.Geology
The island's geology is almost exclusively limestone laid down at the Mesozoic/Cenozoic boundary. As a result of the lack of significant flora covering the island, the landscape shows many features of karstification. There are a number of notable sea caves including the so-called Blue Grotto which is much larger than its namesake in Capri. Exploration undertaken in 2006 by members of the SELAS Caving club of Greece has revealed vertical caves in many parts of the island. The deepest found so far was surveyed to a depth of in March 2006 and will be the subject of further exploration in the future by the same team.History
Ancient period
The island was colonised by Dorian Greeks, who named it "Megiste". In antiquity it was known both as Megiste and Cisthene, but in later times only as Megiste. The Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax says that the island belonged to the Rhodians. In addition, inscriptions found at the foot of the Knight's castle confirm that during the Hellenistic period the island was ruled by Rhodes, and formed part of its Peraia. The Rhodians sent an overseer, or epistates, to monitor events on the island.The three towers of Kastellorizo, Ro and Strongyli comprise the main links in a dense network of watchtowers constructed by the Rhodians during the Hellenistic period, to control the sea routes and the coast. Palaiokastro was the main and largest fortified site on the island.