Náxos

Area of island: 445 sq. km/172 sq. mi

Altitude: 1,003m/3,291ft

Population: 14,000

Chief town: Náxos

Náxos, the largest and most beautiful of the Cyclades, is traversed from north to south by a range of hills which fall away steeply on the east but slope down gradually on the west into fertile rolling country and well-watered plains. The hills rise to a height of 1,003m/3291ft in Mt Zas (ancient Drios) and are cut by two passes. The economy of the island has depended since ancient times on agriculture, marble-quarrying, emery-mining and the recovery of salt from the sea, which have brought it a considerable degree of prosperity. With its limited hotel resources, the island is not yet equipped to cope with mass tourism, but it has much to offer visitors - an equable climate, a wide variety of scenery and monuments of antiquity and the Middle Ages. Náxos was a center of the cult of Dionysos. It was here, according to the legend, that Theseus abandoned Ariadne.

There is much archeological evidence to show that the island was first settled by Carians and Cretans and developed a flourishing Cycladic culture in the third and second millennia B.C. In the first millennium these first settlers were followed by Ionian Greeks, who in the sixth century B.C. extended their rule over Páros, Ándros and other neighboring islands. During this period there was a celebrated school of sculptors on Náxos, notable for such works as the colossal statue of Apollo on Delos. A member of the first Attic maritime league, Náxos became subject to Athens after an unsuccessful rising and was compelled to accept the redistribution of land on the island to Athenian citizens. In spite of this it became a member of the second Attic maritime league. After being held by Macedon it passed under Egyptian rule, was briefly assigned to Rhodes by Mark Antony and thereafter became part of the Byzantine Empire.

In 1207 Náxos was occupied by a Venetian nobleman, Marco Sanudo, who made it capital of the duchy of the Twelve Islands (duchy of Náxos), which flourished until 1566. It was taken by the Turks in 1579 and was under Russian rule from 1770 to 1774, but, like the other Cyclades, retained a measure of independence. In 1830 it joined the newly established kingdom of Greece.

Regular service from Athens (Piraeus), several times daily (eight hours; cars carried). Local connections with the larger neighboring islands.