The best vacation destination for me is Crete. A mountainous, elongated island, averaging about 55 km in width and stretching for some 264 km from east to west, Crete is as diverse in character as the rest of Greece. A chain of high mountains (Dikti and the White Mountains or Lefka Ori), divide it into four distinct regions whose alternating scenery combines to form the impressive beauty of the Cretan landscape. These high mountain ranges, with their natural divisions, form the island`s four provinces: Chania, Rethymnon, Heraklion and Lassithi.

One can get to Crete either by air from Athens or by ship from Piraeus. The superb Minoan civilization, destroyed sometime in 1400 B.C., was developed in Crete. The many ruins of that civilization which exist on the island have stirred world interest for many years. In comparison with that ancient civilization and the heights it reached we can say that the later Classical and Roman ages were periods of decline for Crete.

In 824 A.D. it was captured by the Arabs who turned it into a Saracen Pirates`s lair from where they launched their raids in the Mediterranean regions. They were driven away by the Byzantine General Nicephoros Phocas (who later became Emperor of the Byzantine Empire). About 250 years later the Venetians came to Crete. Under their rule the island knew economic and intellectual development, but this was curtailed when the Turks occupied the island in 1699. For as long as the Turkish yoke lasted the Cretans never ceased fighting for their freedom which they finally regained in 1912, when the island became part of the Greek nation.

Crete, the largest of the Greek islands, offers yet another acceptable impression of life-enchanting friendliness, beauty, fertility and the accumulated spoils of time. Crete has almost unlimited advantages for a holiday. Very fast it is developing into a splendid planned holiday island, providing excellent accommodation in first class hotels, holiday villages and garden-enclosed beach bungalow resort designed to suit their picturesque settings. Soft sandy beaches and seas as gentle and vividly blue-to-green as any in the Mediterranean are a special delight for carefree relaxation in the sun.

Learn more about this author, Roumyana Demireva.
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