The island of Crete

Basic information

Crete is the fifth-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.

Area: 8.336 km2

Population: 621.340 inhabitants (2011 census)

Main cities:

• • Heraklion (Iraklion or Candia), 130.914 inhabitants (2001 census)

  • Chania (Haniá), 53.373 inhabitants (2001 census)

  • Rethymno, 27.868 inhabitants (2001 census)

  • Ierapetra, 23.707 inhabitants

  • Agios Nikolaos, 19.462 inhabitants

  • Sitia, 14.338 inhabitants

Crete: The Official website of the Greek National Tourism Organisation

Interactive Virtual Tour of Crete

Outlined history of Crete

Cretan culture

Cretan dialect: The standard modern Greek language is spoken in Crete. However, there are certain differences in the way some consonants sound in the Cretan dialect. Certain Greek words are also different. Besides the vocabulary differences, spoken Greek in Crete is also distinguished by its distinct accent. Sounds like the 'k', 'h' for example have a different sound in Crete than in modern Greek, as they acquire a listing softness and sound like 'ch' and 'sh', respectively.

Music: Cretan traditional music called, κρητικά (kritika), exhibits a unique sound emanating from a unique instrument, the "lyra". Lyra is held vertically, resting on the thighs of the player, and is played with a bow like a violin. Another instrument which contributes to the unique sound is the "lute" which is played like a guitar and provides the vigorous rhythm of the songs. Mantinades are one category of songs that utilize improvisation and speak of age old concerns of love and death.

Magrini, Tullia. 1997. "Repertories and identities of a musician from Crete", Ethnomusicology OnLine

Cuisine: Cretan cousine consists of food derived from natural and seasonal sources. The most important product is the virgin olive oil. Local wine, vegetables, meat, dairy products (feta cheese, graviera, anthotyros, etc) are also essential. Cretan specialities are the local graviera cheese, and myzithra, creamy white cheese often served instead of feta in the common Greek salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and onions. Some of the special Cretan dishes are:

• • Dakos,

  • Staka (a type of roux prepared by cooking goat milk cream over a low flame with wheat flour or starch), 

  • Apáki (lean pork marinated in vinegar, then smoked with aromatic herbs and shrubs, and packed in salt),

  • Kolokythoanthoi (zucchini flowers stuffed with rice and herbs),

  • Stifado (rabbit / beef / hare stew with pearl onions, vinegar, red wine and cinnamon),

  • Arni / katsiki me stamnagathi (lamb / goat with stamnagathi),

  • Kreas kokkinisto (meat (beef/ chicken) in tomato sauce)

  • Chortokalitsouna (spinach pies),

  • Kouneli me yiaourti (rabbit with yoghurt in the oven),

  • Hohlioi me hondro (Snails with Cracked Wheat),

  • Gamopilafo (Wedding Pilaf - pilaf prepared with the broth from lamb and chicken),

  • Yogurt (made with sheep’s milk instead of cow’s milk) with honey and nuts or pergamont,

  • Bougatsa (pastry filled with cream and/or cheese, and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon).

Notable personalities from Crete

• • Georgios CHORTATZIS (c. 1545 – 1610), a dramatist.

  • Ross DALY (born 1952) is a world music musician who has lived in Crete for most of his life. He is originally from Ireland.

  • Maro DOUKA (born 1947), an acclaimed author, born in Chania.

  • Odysseas ELYTIS (1911 – 1996), an internationally-renowned poet awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1979, was born in Heraklion.

  • El GRECO (Doménikos Theotokópoulos, (1541 – 1614), a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance, born in Fodele.

  • EPIMENIDES of Knossos (c. 7th or 6th century BC), a philosopher associated with the Epimenides paradox, a variation of the liar paradox, revealing self-reference in logic. A typical description of the problem is given in the book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter.

  • Fotis KAFATOS (born in 1940), a Greek molecular entomologist, born in Heraklion.

  • Nikos KAZANTZAKIS (1883 – 1957), an internationally published writer and philosopher, was born in Heraklion. Celebrated for his novel Zorba the Greek, which became known globally after the 1964 release of the Michael Cacoyannis film Zorba the Greek, based on the novel. He also gained renewed fame with the 1988 Martin Scorsese adaptation of his book The Last Temptation of Christ.

  • Vitsentzos KORNAROS (1553 – 1613/1614), a Renaissance author from Sitia who lived in Heraklion (then Candia). Author of the 17th-century epic romance Erotokritos (Ερωτόκριτος).

  • Nikos KOUNDOUROS (born in 1926), a film director, born in Agios Nikolaos.

  • Yannis MARKOPOULOS (born in 1939), a composer, born in Heraklion.

  • Pandelis PREVELAKIS (1909 - 1986), a novelist, poet, dramatist and essayist, was born in Rethymno.

  • Joseph SIFAKIS (born in 1946), a computer scientist and laureate of the 2007 Turing Award, along with Edmund M. Clarke and E. Allen Emerson, for his work on model checking, was born in Heraklion.

  • Yannis SMARAGDIS (born in 1946), a film director. He gained fame with the International co-production (Greece, Spain, England, Hungary, Italy) El Greco (2007) about the life of Greek painter El Greco (Doménicos Theotokópoulos).

  • Giorgos STAVRIANOS, a famous composer, born in Heraklion.

  • Michael (Mikis) THEODORAKIS (born 1925), a famous songwriter and composer, worldwide known for the films Zorba the Greek (1964), Z (1969), and Serpico (1973) is of Cretan origin.

  • Eleftherios VENIZELOS (1864 – 1936), an internationally-renowned former Greek Prime Minister, born in Mournies, near Chania.