Greek Islands

The Greek Islands are the islands of Greece, whose total number is estimated at anywhere from about 1,200 to 6,000 depending on the minimum size counted, with between 166 and 227 of them inhabited. Crete is the largest by both area and population, followed by Euboea, which is separated from the mainland by a strait only about 60 meters wide, then Lesbos and Rhodes. The islands are traditionally grouped into clusters including the Saronic Islands near Athens, the Cyclades in the central Aegean, the North Aegean islands off the Turkish coast, the Dodecanese in the southeast, the Sporades near Euboea and the Ionian Islands west of the mainland, with Crete and Euboea usually treated separately from these groupings; some islands historically settled by Greeks lie off the coasts of present day Turkey and Albania.