Crete with the Bronze Age
Multi-media chart Hatchet
In Greek old Krêtê, modern Greek Kríti. Crete, with 8 330 km2, is one of the largest islands of the Eastern Mediterranean. It constitutes one of the links of the mountainous arc connecting the Peloponnese to Anatolia. Long and narrow, it is punctuated of three solid masses which culminate with more than 2 000 m: white mountains (Lefka Ori) in the west, the Ida in the center and Dhikti in the east.
The innumerable caves hidden in these reliefs played throughout its history a very great part, either like habitats, or like necropoles or sanctuaries. The vast plain of Messara occupies the South of the island; in Antiquity, Eastern and central Crete was famous for its pastures of altitude, its olives and its wines, its oaks and its cypresses.