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13-531: All major islands in the sea, which are located in the east of the sea, belong to Greece . They are collectively named the Ionian Islands , the main ones being Corfu , Kefalonia , Zakynthos , Lefkada , and Ithaca . There are ferry routes between Patras and Igoumenitsa , Greece, and Brindisi and Ancona , Italy, that cross the east and north of the Ionian Sea, and from Piraeus westward. Calypso Deep ,

26-633: The Thracian Sea : Download coordinates as: The 30 islands in the Sporades are listed below, with the four major islands in bold. The largest Sporades island is Skyros . Download coordinates as: Islands in the Ionian Sea are listed below. The seven largest and most popular islands are listed in bold. The following islands are close to the mainland and not part of a sea: Sporades The ( Northern ) Sporades are an archipelago along

39-617: The Aegean island groups outside the central archipelago of the Cyclades . In modern geographical parlance, there are five different Sporades groups: As part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform , the Sporades Regional Unit ( Περιφερειακή Ενότητα Σποράδων ) was created out of part of the former Magnesia Prefecture , region of Thessaly . The regional unit is subdivided into 3 municipalities. These are: The island of Skyros and

52-576: The construction of the Corinth Canal in 1893, but is rarely considered to be an island due to its artificial origins. The following are the 50 largest Greek islands listed by surface area. Download coordinates as: This list includes Argo-Saronic islands , which are located in the Saronic Gulf . The largest Argo-Saronic island is Salamis. The main islands are in bold. Uninhabited islands are indicated, including those that may have been inhabited in

65-520: The deepest point in the Mediterranean at 5,109 m (16,762 ft), is in the Ionian Sea, at 36°34′N 21°8′E  /  36.567°N 21.133°E  / 36.567; 21.133 . The sea is one of the most seismically active areas in the world. The name Ionian comes from the Greek word Ionion (Ἰόνιον) . Its etymology is unknown. Ancient Greek writers, especially Aeschylus , linked it to

78-518: The east coast of Greece , northeast of the island of Euboea , in the Aegean Sea . They consist of 24 islands, four of which are permanently inhabited: Alonnisos , Skiathos , Skopelos and Skyros . They may also be referred to as the Thessalian Sporades ( Θεσσαλικές Σποράδες ). "Sporades" means "those scattered" (compare with "sporadic"). From Classical Antiquity the name has referred to

91-535: The limits of the Ionian Sea as follows: From south to north in the west, then north to south in the east: The Sea was the location of the famous naval battle between Octavian and Marc Antony known as The Battle of Actium , a war fought in 31 BC, and is also famous for the hero from Ancient Greek mythology named Odysseus, who was from the island of Ithaca . Greek islands Download coordinates as: Greece has many islands , with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on

104-481: The minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227. The largest Greek island by both area and population is Crete , located at the southern edge of the Aegean Sea . The second largest island in area is Euboea or Evvia, which is separated from the mainland by the 60m-wide Euripus Strait , and is administered as part of the Central Greece region. After

117-583: The myth of Io . In ancient Greek the adjective Ionios ( Ἰόνιος ) was used as an epithet for the sea because Io swam across it. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary , the name may derive from Ionians who sailed to the West, however the word for Ionians is spelled with an omega ( Ἴωνες) rather than an omicron as in the word for the Ionian Sea. There were also narratives about other eponymic legendary figures; according to one version, Ionius

130-714: The past: The two lists below show the islands, islets, and rocks that surround the island of Crete that are in the Aegean Sea or Libyan Sea . Download coordinates as: Download coordinates as: Islands on the south coast of Crete are considered in the Libyan Sea . Download coordinates as: The Cyclades islands comprise around 220 islands and islets. The main islands are indicated in bold below. Download coordinates as: There are 164 total Dodecanese Islands of which 26 are inhabited. There are 12 main islands, listed in bold below: There are also two North Aegean islands in

143-588: The third and fourth largest Greek islands, Lesbos and Rhodes , the rest of the islands are two-thirds of the area of Rhodes, or smaller. The Greek islands are traditionally grouped into the following clusters: the Argo-Saronic Islands in the Saronic Gulf near Athens ; the Cyclades , a large but dense collection occupying the central part of the Aegean Sea; the North Aegean islands , a loose grouping off

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156-596: The west coast of Turkey; the Dodecanese , another loose collection in the southeast between Crete and Turkey; the Sporades , a small tight group off the coast of Euboea; and the Ionian Islands , chiefly located to the west of the mainland in the Ionian Sea . Crete with its surrounding islets and Euboea are traditionally excluded from this grouping. This article excludes the Peloponnese , which has technically been an island since

169-589: Was a son of Adrias (eponymic for the Adriatic Sea ); according to another, Ionius was a son of Dyrrhachus . When Dyrrhachus was attacked by his own brothers, Heracles , who was passing through the area, came to his aid, but in the fight the hero killed his ally's son by mistake. The body was cast into the water, and thereafter was called the Ionian Sea. Cham Albanians used to call the Ionian sea "The Lady's Domain". The International Hydrographic Organization defines

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