Dodecanese

(Local Name: Dokekánisa) The Dodecanese ("Twelve Islands") are a group of islands off the southwest coast of Asia Minor, the most southerly part of the Southern Sporades. The group consists of the fourteen larger islands of Lipsí, Pátmos, Léros, Kálymnos, Kos, Astypálaia, Nísyros, Symi, Tílos, Rhodes, Khalki, Kárpathos, Kásos and Kastellórizo, together with some 40 smaller islands and islets.

These islands belong geologically to the mainland of Anatolia, but culturally and historically to Greece. With the exception of Rhodes they are short of water and for the most part barren. The inhabitants earn their livelihood from agriculture, sponge-diving (headquarters of the Greek sponge-fishing fleet; now