Xenon Estate Luxury Villas		Greek Islands Luxury Villas Information

In this page The Xenon Estate Luxury Villas offers you some valuable information about the lovely Greek islands. You may choose any destination for you holiday you prefer, while having in mind that in the greek islands of Argo-Saronic and especially in Spetses Island the Xenon Estate luxury villas offer you first class services in an environment you will never forget!

The Greek Islands are a collection of over 6,000 islands and islets that belong to Greece. Only 227 of the islands are inhabited, and only 78 of those have more than 100 inhabitants.

The largest Greek island by area is Crete, located at the southern edge of the Aegean Sea.

The second largest island is Euboea, which is separated from the mainland by the 60m-wide Euripus Strait, and is administered as part of the central Greece periphery.

After the third and fourth largest Greek Islands, Lesbos and Rhodes, the rest of the islands are two-thirds of the area of Rhodes, or smaller.

The Greek islands are traditionally grouped into the following clusters: The Argo-Saronic Islands in the Saronic gulf near Athens, the Cyclades, a large but dense collection occupying the central part of the Aegean Sea, the North Aegean islands, a loose grouping off the west coast of Turkey, the Dodecanese, another loose collection in the southeast between Crete and Turkey, the Sporades, a small tight group off the coast of Euboea, and the Ionian Islands, located to the west of the mainland in the Ionian Sea.

The Saronic Islands or Argo-Saronic Islands is an archipelago in Greece, named after the Saronic Gulf in which they are located, just off the Greek mainland. The main inhabited islands of this group are Salamis (where the ancient Greek navy defeated the Persians in the Battle of Salamis), Aegina, Angistri, and Poros. The islands of Hydra and Dokos, which lie off the northeast tip of the Peloponnese (technically between the Saronic Gulf and the Argolic Gulf), are sometimes included as part of the Saronic Islands. It is especially apt in describing Hydra and Dokos, which do not really lie in either gulf.

Many mainland Greeks have vacation homes in the Saronic Islands, which are regularly served by ferries from Piraeus and the Peloponnese.

The Xenon Estate Luxury Villas is Located in Greek island Spetses.

The Cyclades (Greek: Κυκλάδες, [cikˈlaðes]) is a Greek island group in the Aegean Sea, south-east of the mainland of Greece; and an administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name refers to the islands around (κυκλάς) the sacred island of Delos. The Cyclades is where the native Greek breed of cat (the Aegean cat) first came from.

The Cyclades comprise about 220 islands, the major ones being Amorgós, Anáfē, Ándros, Antíparos, Dēlos, Eschátē, Íos, Kéa, Kímōlos, Kýthnos, Mēlos, Mýkonos, Náxos, Páros, Folégandros, Sérifos, Sífnos, Síkinos, Sýros, Tēnos, and Thēra or Santoríni. Most of the smaller islands are uninhabited.

Ermoupolis, on Syros, is the chief town and administrative center of the prefecture.

The islands are peaks of a submerged mountainous terrain, with the exception of two volcanic islands, Milos and Santorini (Thera). The climate is generally dry and mild, but with the exception of Naxos the soil is not very fertile: agricultural produce includes wine, fruit, wheat, olive oil, and tobacco. Cooler temperatures are in higher elevations and mainly do not receive wintry weather. In transportation, the Cyclades is the only prefecture in Greece that is not linked with a state-maintained highway or a highway number. All of the roads in the island complex are secondary or provincial.

Islands List:

Amorgos • Anafi • Andros • Antimilos • Antiparos • Delos • Despotiko • Donoussa • Folegandros • Gyaros • Ios • Irakleia • Kardiotissa • Kea • Keros • Kimolos • Koufonisi • Kythnos • Milos • Mykonos • Nata • Naxos • Paros • Polyaigos • Rhineia • Santorini • Schoinoussa • Serifopoula • Serifos • Sifnos • Sikinos • Syros • Therasia • Tinos • Vous

The North Aegean islands are a number of disconnected islands in the north Aegean Sea, also known as the Northeast Aegean islands, belonging to Greece and Turkey. The islands do not form a physical chain or group, but are frequently grouped together for tourist or administrative purposes. To the south are the Dodecanese islands; and to the west are the Cyclades and Sporades islands.

Within this group, the main islands along the Turkish coast are the Greek islands of Samos and Ikaria, Chios, Lesbos and Lemnos, and the Turkish islands of Imbros (also known as Gokceada), Tenedos or Bozcaada and the Rabbit Islands. The main islands in the Thracian Sea in the far north are the Greek islands of Samothrace and Thasos.

Islands List:

The Dodecanese (Greek: Δωδεκάνησα, Dodekánisa, [ðoðeˈkanisa], literally 'twelve islands') are a group of 12 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, off the southwest coast of Turkey, southward of the island of Samos and northeastward of the island of Crete. They belong to the Southern Sporades island group. They have a rich history, and many of even the smallest inhabited islands boast dozens of Byzantine churches and medieval castles.

The islands were part of the Dodecanese Prefecture.

The group consists of 163 islands in total, of which 26 are inhabited. Twelve of these are major, giving the chain its name. The most historically important and well-known is Rhodes (Rodos), which for millennia has been the island from which the region is controlled. Of the others, Kos and Patmos are historically more important; the remaining nine are Astipalea, Kalimnos, Karpathos, Kasos, Leros, Nisyros, Symi, Tilos and Kastelorizo (which actually lies in the eastern Mediterranean).

Islands List:

The (Northern) Sporades (Greek: Βόρειες Σποράδες) are an archipelago along the east coast of Greece, northeast of the island of Euboea, in the Aegean Sea. It consists of 24 islands, of which five are inhabited: Alonissos, Skiathos, Skopelos, Peristera and Skyros.

Administratively, the islands are split between the Greek peripheries of Thessaly (most islands) and Central Greece (Skyros).

Islands List:

The Ionian Islands are a group of islands in Greece. They are traditionally called the Heptanese, i.e. "the Seven Islands", but the group includes many smaller islands as well as the seven principal ones. The seven are, from north to south:

• Kerkyra (Κέρκυρα) usually known as Corfu in English
• Paxi (Παξοί) also known as Paxos in English
• Lefkada (Λευκάδα) also known as Lefkas in English
• Ithaki (Ιθάκη) usually known as Ithaca in English
• Kefalonia (Κεφαλλονιά) often known as Kefalonia, Cephalonia and Kefallinia in English
• Zakynthos (Ζάκυνθος) sometimes known as Zante in English
• Kythira (Κύθηρα) sometimes known as Cerigo in English

The six northern islands are off the west coast of Greece, in the Ionian Sea. The seventh island, Kythira, is off the southern tip of the Peloponnese, the southern part of the Greek mainland. Kythira is not part of the periphery of the Ionian Islands, as it is included in the periphery of Attica.

Latin transliteration, as well as Modern Greek pronunciation, may suggest that the Ionian Sea and Islands are somehow related to Ionia, an Anatolian region;

The islands themselves are known by a rather confusing variety of names. During the centuries of rule by Venice, they acquired Venetian names, by which some of them are still known in English (and in Italian). Kerkyra was known as Corfù, Ithaki as Val di Compare, Kythera as Cerigo, Lefkada as Santa Maura and Zakynthos as Zante.

A variety of spellings are used for the Greek names of the islands, particularly in historical writing. Kefallonia is often spelled as Cephallenia or Cephalonia, Ithaki as Ithaca, Kerkyra as Corcyra, Kythera as Cythera, Lefkada as Leucas or Leucada and Zakynthos as Zacynthus or Zante. Older or variant Greek forms are sometimes also used: Kefallinia for Kefallonia and Paxos or Paxoi for Paxi.

Islands List:

Kerkyra • Paxi • Lefkada • Ithaki • Kefalonia • Zakynthos • Kythira