Kastellorizo or Castellorizo ( ; ), officially Megisti (), is a Greek island and municipality of the Dodecanese in the Eastern Mediterranean.Bertarelli, 131 It lies roughly off the south coast of Turkey, about southeast of Athens and east of Rhodes, almost halfway between Rhodes and Antalya, and northwest of Cyprus. Kastellorizo is part of the Rhodes regional unit.
The island has become very popular in recent years among tourists looking for an isolated place in the Dodecanese, thanks also to the 1991 Oscar-winning movie Mediterraneo, by Gabriele Salvatores, which is set on the island during the Second World War.
Name and etymology The island's official name, Megisti (Μεγίστη) means "biggest" or "greatest", but at only in area, it is the smallest of the Dodecanese. The name refers to the fact that it is the largest island of its small archipelago. This name was used in antiquity,Strabo, Geographica 14.3.7 but is now rarely used in Greek, the name Kastellórizo (Καστελλόριζο) being common since the 12th century. There are several hypotheses about the origin of this name. "Kastello" derives from the Italian word "castello", meaning "castle". There is some argument on the second part of the name. The arguments are centred on the following possible origins of the element rizo: rizo being derived from the Italian word "rosso" meaning "red", either from the reddish colour of the rocks of the island, the reddish colour of the castle at sunset, or the colour of the coat of arms of the Great Master of the Knights of Rhodes, Juan Fernández de Heredia, which stood above the gate of the castle; these arguments are widely discredited as the rocks on the island have no red pigment and the name Kastellorizo predates the Knights' arrival. rizo being a corruption of the word "Rhoge", one of the ancient appellations of the nearby island of Ro. If this is correct, the island's modern name is actually an amalgam of the separate island names "Castello" and "Rhoge". rizo being the actual Greek word rizon meaning "root", as researched by Greek historian I.M. Hatzifotis (1996), to signify the foothill or rizovouno on which the island's original castle was built. It has gone by several different names in its history, including Kastellorizo (Greek), Castellorizo (Greek name with Italian spelling), (Italian, meaning "Red Castle"), Château Rouge (French translation of Italian name: but possibly the Italian name is a calque of , an ancient possession of the Knights Hospitaller in Syria), (online) and or , both Turkish, the former deriving from the island's official name in Greek, the latter meaning "Red Castle", a translation of the Italian name.
Physical geography
Kastellorizo is (except for the nearby islet of Strongyli) the easternmost Greek island and is situated in the Levantine Sea. It is the largest island of the homonym archipelago comprising the islands and islets of Agios Georgios, Agrielaia, Voutsakia, Megalo Mavro Poini, Mikro Mavro Poini, Polifados Ena, Polifados Dio, Ro, Savoura, Strongyli, Tragonera, Psomi, and Psoradia. It lies about from the Anatolian coastal town of Kaş, more or less halfway between Rhodes and Antalya. Cyprus is about to the south-east. It is long and wide, with a surface of . It has a triangular shape, and is oriented from north-east to south-west. The island features three capes: Agios Stefanos (north), Nifti (east) and Pounenti (south west); between the first two there is a wide and accommodating bay, the island's main harbor, where one finds the only town on the island. Cape Agios Stefanos, the nearest to Anatolia, is south of the modern Turkish town of Kaş (Greek: Andífli, the Ancient Greek City of Antiphéllos). Cape Nifti lies at a greater distance from the Anatolian coast. The island is mountainous, with high and steep coastlines, which become more difficult to access moving west. The soil is composed of limestone and produces only small amounts of olives, grapes, and beans. On the island, there is no source of drinking water. The Municipality of Megísti includes the offshore islands of Ro and Strongyli as well as several smaller islets. It has a total land area of .
Nearby islands between Turkey and Kastellorizo
There are many islets in this area; Volos, near Kalkan (Greek: Kalamaki), Ochendra, Furnachia, Prassonisi, Ro, Tragonera, Marathi, Strongyli, Dhassia, Alimentaria, Kekova, and Psomi besides many rocks and cliffs. The most important among these islets is Kekova (also named Caravola), not inhabited, which has an area of and faces the Turkish village of Kaleköy (Simena in antiquity).
All these islets were subject to dispute between Italy and Turkey until 1932. According to the 1932 Convention between Italy and Turkey, all these islets except Ro, Strongyli, and Psomi were assigned to Turkey.
The group of islands that includes Kastellorizo, Ro, and Strongyli is very important to the Exclusive economic zone of Greece (EEZ), since it is the easternmost territory of Greece and according to UNCLOS as well as customary international law, Greece can claim a large part of the Eastern Mediterranean basin.
Geography
The houses of the town are slender and characterised by wooden balconies and windows of the Anatolian type.Bertarelli, 133 Behind the waterfront, many houses are still in a ruinous state. At the entrance to the harbour, on the east side, stand the single-story remnants of the former Italian government house (palazzina della delegazione), erected in 1926 by the Italian architect Florestano Di Fausto, who also designed some of the most important buildings of the Italian period in Rhodes.Bertarelli, 132 Nearby is the island's former Ottoman mosque which dates from the second half of the 18th century and which has been restored and re-opened as a museum since 2007. From here starts the town's quay, which runs along all three sides of the harbour. The central square — Plateia Ethelondon Kastellórizou ('Kastellorizo Volunteers' Square') — lies at the midpoint of the eastern side, near the vessel dock. On the opposite side of the harbour one has a good view from this vantage of Pera Meria, the western quay, and the monasteries of Profitis Ilías and Aghia Triadha, the former now an army base.
Above the quay on the eastern side is a pathway which leads to the Castle of the Knights (14th century). Of it remain the curtain wall, part of a square tower, the remains of a cylindrical tower at the east corner, and toward the sea another cylindrical tower.Bertarelli, 134 A Doric inscription, carved in the rock, attests to the existence of an earlier fortress here during Antiquity. Inside the tower there is a large covered cistern.
Ascending the steps on the eastern side of the town, one reaches the suburb of Horafia, where there is a square surrounded by the Church of St. George (1906), with a high dome of Byzantine type, and the Cathedral of Saints Constantine and Helena (1835). It has three naves divided by monolithic granite columns from the temple of Apollo Lykios in Patara (Anatolia). The columns carry ogival arches. Further east is the small bay known as Mandraki, the secondary harbour of the island.
West of the town, beyond the summit of the island known as Vigla (270 m), stands Palaiokastro (old castle), the island's ancient acropolis. This fortified elevation has classical origins (see below, history section): its plan is rectangular and measures . In its interior stand an ancient tower, built with square limestone blocks, and large water cisterns. Carved on the base of the castle there is also a Doric inscription, dating back to the 4th or 3rd centuries BC, with references to Megiste (the ancient name of Kastellorizo) and its dependence on Rhodes. On the east side there are remnants of a gateway, or propylaea.
Since August 2020 the island also features an interactive Puzzle Museum, the first of its kind in Greece and one of the very few in the world.
Climate Kastellorizo has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Csa in the Köppen climate classification). It has hot dry summers and exceptionally mild winters by European standards. Like in the Azores, average lows do not drop below 12.0 °C during the coldest months. According to the National Observatory of Athens station the lowest temperature ever recorded in coastal Kastellorizo is 4.5 °C and was recorded on 25 January 2022.Μηνιαίο Δελτίο Μετεωρολογικών Παραμέτρων Ελλάδα (in Greek) Retrieved 11 March 2023 Kastellorizo records on average 158 tropical nights per year and falls in 11a hardiness zone. After Lindos, the island records the highest average annual temperature in Greece with 21.9 °C.
Geology The island's geology is almost exclusively limestone laid down at the Mesozoic/Cenozoic boundary. As a result of the lack of significant flora covering the island, the landscape shows many features of karstification. There are several notable sea caves including the so-called Blue Grotto which is much larger than its namesake in Capri. Exploration undertaken in 2006 by members of the SELAS Caving club of Greece has revealed vertical caves in many parts of the island. The deepest found so far was surveyed to a depth of in March 2006 and will be the subject of further exploration in the future by the same team.
History Ancient period The island was colonised by Dorian Greeks, who named it "Megiste".Smith, William (1865), Dictionary of Greek and Roman geography, s.v. "Megiste". In antiquity it was known both as Megiste and Cisthene (Greek: Κισθήνη), but in later times only as Megiste. The Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax says that the island belonged to the Rhodians. In addition, inscriptions found at the foot of the Knight's castle confirm that during the Hellenistic period the island was ruled by Rhodes, and formed part of its Peraia. The Rhodians sent an overseer, or epistates, to monitor events on the island.
The three towers of Kastellorizo, Ro and Strongyli comprise the main links in a dense network of watchtowers constructed by the Rhodians during the Hellenistic period, to control the sea routes and the coast. Palaiokastro was (and still is) the main and largest fortified site on the island.
Byzantine era During the Byzantine period, Kastellorizo was part of the "Province of the Islands", the capital of which was Rhodes. Later it was incorporated into the theme of Aegean Sea.
Knights Hospitaller period In 1306 the island was taken over by the Knights Hospitaller, headed by Foulques de Villaret, as part of their expedition to conquer the island of Rhodes, which became the centre of their Crusader state. They restored the castle, which was thereafter used as a prison for disobedient knights.
Nicola de Martoni, who visited the island in 1395, recorded in his work that the residents of Kastellorizo owned many vineyards on the opposite shore and they were able to regularly cross the water to tend to these crops due to a truce with the Turks at the time.Nicola de Martoni, Pilgrimage to the Holy Places, 8.638–8.639
Around 1440, the island was occupied by Sultan Sayf ad-Din Jaqmaq of Egypt, who destroyed the castle. Ten years later, it was conquered by Alfonso V of Aragon, king of Naples, who in 1461 rebuilt the castle and dispatched a Catalan governor.
Ottoman era
The Crown of Aragon retained possession of it until 1512, when it was conquered by Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I.
On 22 September 1659, during the Siege of Candia, the island was conquered by Venice and the castle was destroyed again, but the Ottomans were able to regain it soon after. Between 1828 and 1833 Kastellórizo joined the Greek insurgents, but after the end of the Greek War of Independence it came back into the possession of the Ottoman Empire.