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33-543: Southern Sporades (Greek Nóties Sporádes ) are Greek islands situated between the Cyclades and Turkey . They correspond to the Dodecanese plus a few northern islands (especially Samos and Ikaria ). Also included in this group by some geographers are the islands of Chios and Lesbos . 38°50′N 24°25′E  /  38.833°N 24.417°E  / 38.833; 24.417 This South Aegean location article

66-509: A five weeks' siege. Naxos became the seat of Sanudo's realm, known as the "Duchy of Naxos" or "Duchy of the Archipelago". Twenty-one dukes in two dynasties ruled the Archipelago, until 1566; Venetian rule continued in scattered islands of the Aegean until 1714. Under Venetian rule, the island was called by its Italian name, Nasso . The Sanudi introduced Western feudal law to the island, based on

99-511: A payment of tribute. Two years later, however, the Smyrniote crusade captured his main port, Smyrna . The relief was temporary, however, as Turkish raids recommenced later in the century. The island was so depopulated that Cristoforo Buondelmonti in c.  1420 claimed that there were not enough men to wed the Naxiot women. The rising Ottoman Empire first attacked the island in 1416, but

132-617: A result there have been problems with erosion , pollution, and water shortages. The Cyclades includes about 220 islands, the major ones being Amorgos , Anafi , Andros , Antiparos , Delos , Ios , Kea , Kimolos , Kythnos , Milos , Mykonos , Naxos , Paros , Folegandros , Serifos , Sifnos , Sikinos , Syros , Tinos , and Thira or Santoríni . There are also many minor islands (the Lesser Cyclades ) including Donousa , Eschati , Gyaros , Irakleia , Koufonisia , Makronisos , Rineia , and Schoinousa . The name "Cyclades" refers to

165-486: Is a Greek island and the largest of the Cyclades . It was the centre of the archaic Cycladic culture . The island is famous as a source of emery , a rock rich in corundum , which until modern times was one of the best abrasives available. The largest town and capital of the island is Chora or Naxos City , with 7,374 inhabitants (2011 census). The main villages are Filoti , Apiranthos , Vivlos, Agios Arsenios, Koronos and Glynado . According to Greek mythology ,

198-486: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Cyclades The significant Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Cycladic culture is best known for its schematic, flat sculptures carved out of the islands' pure white marble centuries before the great Middle Bronze Age Minoan civilization arose in Crete to the south. (These figures have been looted from burials to satisfy a thriving Cycladic antiquities market since

231-440: Is a popular tourist destination , with several ruins. It has a number of beaches, such as those at Agia Anna, Agios Prokopios , Alikos, Kastraki, Mikri Vigla, Plaka, and Agios Georgios, most of them near Chora. As other cycladic islands , Naxos is considered a windy place perfect for windsurfing , as well as kitesurfing . There are seven sports clubs in the island that offer both of these sports and other water activities. Naxos

264-481: Is the most fertile island of the Cyclades. It has a good supply of water in a region where water is usually inadequate. Mount Zeus (1,004 metres or 3,294 feet) is the highest peak in the Cyclades, and tends to trap the clouds, permitting greater rainfall. This has made agriculture an important economic sector with various vegetable and fruit crops as well as cattle breeding, making Naxos the most self-sufficient island in

297-554: The Assizes of Romania . However, the native Greek population continued to use Byzantine law for civil matters at least until the late 16th century. In the 13th century, following the capture of Antalya and Alanya on the southern Anatolian coast by the Seljuk Turks , refugees from these areas settled in Naxos. In the 14th century, the island was once more exposed to raids, this time from

330-679: The Anatolian Turkish beyliks , chiefly the Aydınids . In turn, the Sanudi assisted the Genoese in capturing Chios in 1304 and the Knights Hospitaller in their conquest of Rhodes in 1309, in order to stop these islands being used as Turkish pirate base. Nevertheless, raids against Naxos are recorded in 1324 and 1326, and in 1341, Umur of Aydın carried off 6,000 people from the island and imposed

363-599: The Byzantine Empire , Naxos was part of the thema of the Aegean Sea , which was established in the mid-9th century. In Byzantine times, the island's capital was on the southern fortress of Apalyres. During this time, it suffered from Saracen raids, particular during the existence of the Emirate of Crete (824–961), to which the island occasionally paid tribute. Traces of Muslim artistic influence are visible in frescoes from

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396-606: The Middle Paleolithic era, which indicates that Neanderthal activity on the island spanned almost 200,000 years ago. The extinct dwarf elephant species Palaeoloxodon lomolinoi lived on Naxos at some point during the Late Pleistocene . Zas Cave, inhabited during the Neolithic era, contained objects of stone from Melos and copper objects including a dagger and gold sheet. The presence of gold and other objects within

429-473: The Venetian Marco Sanudo conquered Naxos and most of the other Cyclades in 1205–1207. Of all the islands, only on Naxos was there any opposition to Sanudo: a group of Genoese pirates had occupied the castle between the end of Byzantine rule and Sanudo's arrival. To steel his band's resolve, Sanudo burnt his galleys "and bade his companions to conquer or die". The pirates surrendered the castle after

462-651: The 10th century. Nevertheless, as in Antiquity, Naxos was celebrated for its agriculture and animal husbandry; the 12th-century geographer al-Idrisi records extensive cattle raising on the island. In the late 12th century, it may have been the capital of a short-lived thema of the " Dodekanesos ". In the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade , with a Latin Empire under the influence of the Venetians established at Constantinople ,

495-543: The Cyclades. Naxos is well known within Greece for its "Arseniko Naxou" cheese, potatoes, Kitron (a local lemon-citrus spirit), and Naxian honey (which is largely derived from the nectar of thyme ). The quarrying of marble on Naxos began before 550 BCE . Naxian marble was used for the creation of the roof tiles at ancient Olympia and on the Athenian Acropolis , As of 2016, about 5,000 m³ of high value Naxian marble

528-559: The Insular Greeks (1885, London, pp. 329–371). Naxos experiences both a Mediterranean climate ( Csa ) and a hot semi-arid climate ( Köppen climate classification : BSh ) depending on the location. According to the stations of the National Observatory of Athens , various locations in Naxos have a hot semi-arid climate . Inland areas of the island are much wetter and cooler in winter, owing to their higher elevation. Naxos

561-644: The Persian Empire in the Ionian Revolt , and then to the Persian War between Greece and Persia. Naxos was the first Greek city-state to attempt to leave the Delian League circa 469 BC; Athens quickly quashed the notion and forcibly removed all military naval vessels from the island's control. Athens then demanded all future payments from Naxos in the form of gold rather than military aid. In Late Antiquity ,

594-661: The Sultans recognized Venetian overlordship over the Duchy in successive treaties, in exchange for an annual tribute. The Ottoman administration remained essentially in the hands of the Venetians; the Porte's concern was satisfied by the returns of taxes. Very few Turks ever settled on Naxos, and Turkish influence on the island was insignificant. Under Ottoman rule the island was known in Turkish as Nakşa . Ottoman sovereignty lasted until 1821, when

627-455: The abandonment of a siege they laid against the gods, by offering to live on Naxos as Otus's lover; in another, the brothers had actually settled Naxos. It is also said that the sea god Poseidon was passing by Naxos whilst driving his chariot on the sea surface and is where he first laid eyes on his future wife, the nereid Amphitrite as she was dancing there. Stelida quarry, south-west of Chora , contains Mousterian tools dating back to

660-513: The broad outlines of a farming and seafaring culture that had emigrated from Anatolia c.  5000 BCE . Early Cycladic culture evolved in three phases, between c. 3300 – 2000 BCE, when it was increasingly swamped in the rising influence of Minoan Crete. The culture of mainland Greece contemporary with Cycladic culture is known as the Helladic period . In recent decades the Cyclades have become popular with European and other tourists, and as

693-472: The cave indicated to researchers the status of the inhabitant. Emery was exported during that time, to other islands. During the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Naxos dominated commerce in the Cyclades. Herodotus describes Naxos circa 500 BC as the most prosperous Greek island. In 499 BC, an unsuccessful attack on Naxos by Persian forces led several prominent men in the Greek cities of Ionia to rebel against

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726-416: The early 20th century.) A distinctive Neolithic culture amalgamating Anatolian and mainland Greek elements arose in the western Aegean before 4000 BCE, based on emmer and wild-type barley, sheep and goats, pigs, and tuna that were apparently speared from small boats (Rutter). Excavated sites include Chalandriani , Phylakopi , Skarkos , Saliagos and Kephala (on Kea ) with signs of copperworking, Each of

759-461: The emergence of Christianity. The first archaeological excavations of the 1880s, undertaken by antiquaries such as Theodore Bent at Antiparos in early 1884, were followed by systematic work by the British School at Athens and by Christos Tsountas , who investigated burial sites on several islands in 1898–1899 and coined the term "Cycladic civilization". Interest lagged, and then picked up in

792-606: The island of Naxos itself, since it was more widely supposed than any other to have been the nuptial isle of Dionysus . One legend has it that in the Heroic Age before the Trojan War , Theseus abandoned Ariadne on this island after she helped him kill the Minotaur and escape from the Labyrinth . Dionysus (god of wine, festivities, and the primal energy of life) who was the protector of

825-620: The island was part of the province of the Islands . Pope Martin I was detained on the island of Naxos for almost a year after he was arrested by Byzantine authorities in Rome due to his holding of a synod that condemned monotheletism . He was held on the island prior to being taken to Constantinople for trial. While detained on the island, he wrote to a certain Theodore living in Constantinople. Under

858-591: The island, met Ariadne and fell in love with her. But eventually Ariadne, unable to bear her separation from Theseus, either killed herself (according to the Athenians), or ascended to heaven (as the older versions had it). The Naxos portion of the Ariadne myth is also told in the Richard Strauss opera Ariadne auf Naxos . The giant brothers Otus and Ephialtes figure in at least two Naxos myths: in one, Artemis bought

891-421: The islands forming a circle ("circular islands") around the sacred island of Delos. Most of the smaller islands are uninhabited. Ermoupoli on Syros is the chief town and administrative center of the former prefecture. The islands are peaks of a submerged mountainous terrain, with the exception of two volcanic islands , Milos and Santorini. The climate is generally dry and mild, but with the exception of Naxos,

924-1283: The islands revolted; Naxos finally became part of the Greek state in 1832. Early commentators in English on the island include: Bernard Randolph , in The Present State of the Islands in the Archipelago (1687, Oxford, pp. 20-21). Jean de Thévenot , in Travels into the Levant (1687, London, pp. 103–105). Joseph Pitton de Tournefort , in A Voyage Into the Levant (1718, London, pp. 161–176). Thomas Bankes et al., in A new royal authentic and complete system of universal geography antient and modern... (1787, London, p. 943). Edward Daniel Clarke , in Travels in Various Countries (1814, vol. 3, section 2, London, pp. 377–400). William Martin Leake , in Travels in Northern Greece (1835, vol. 3, London, pp. 93-95). Theodore Bent , in The Cyclades, or Life Among

957-564: The mid-20th century, as collectors competed for the modern-looking figures that seemed so similar to sculpture by Jean Arp or Constantin Brâncuși . Sites were looted and a brisk trade in forgeries arose. The context for many of these Cycladic figurines has been mostly destroyed and their meaning may never be completely understood. Another intriguing and mysterious object is that of the Cycladic frying pans . More accurate archaeology has revealed

990-709: The prefecture was abolished, and its territory was divided into nine regional units of the South Aegean region: The prefecture was subdivided into the following municipalities and communities. These have been reorganised at the 2011 Kallikratis reform as well. Note: Provinces no longer hold any legal status in Greece . Local specialities of the Cyclades include: 37°00′N 25°10′E  /  37.000°N 25.167°E  / 37.000; 25.167 Naxos Naxos ( / ˈ n æ k s ɒ s , - s oʊ s / ; Greek : Νάξος , pronounced [ˈnaksos] )

1023-408: The small Cycladic islands could support no more than a few thousand people, though Late Cycladic boat models show that fifty oarsmen could be assembled from the scattered communities (Rutter), and when the highly organized palace-culture of Crete arose, the islands faded into insignificance, with the exception of Delos, which retained its archaic reputation as a sanctuary throughout antiquity and until

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1056-471: The soil is not very fertile; agricultural produce includes wine, fruit, wheat, olive oil , and tobacco. Lower temperatures are registered in higher elevations and these areas do not usually see wintry weather. The Cyclades are bounded to the south by the Sea of Crete . The Cyclades Prefecture ( Greek : Νομός Κυκλάδων ) was one of the prefectures of Greece . As a part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform ,

1089-454: The young Zeus was raised in a cave on Mt. Zas (" Zas " meaning " Zeus "). Homer mentions " Dia "; literally the sacred island "of the Goddess". Károly Kerényi explains: This name, Dia, which means 'heavenly' or 'divine', was applied to several small craggy islands in our [Aegean] sea, all of them lying close to larger islands, such as Crete or Naxos. The name "Dia" was even transferred to

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