Thásos
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Chief town: Thásos (Liménas)
Thásos, an attractive and fertile island, well watered in the north and east, lies just off the eastern Macedonian coast in the northern Aegean, here called the Sea of Thrace (where deposits of oil have recently been found). It is occupied by a range of wooded hills rising to 1,203m/3,947ft in Mt Ypsári and slashed by deep valleys. The northern and eastern slopes fall steeply down to the sea; on the south and west sides the hills slope down more gradually, forming numerous deep sandy bays along the coasts. The island's income comes from farming, mining (copper, zinc) and increasingly from the tourist trade.
The earliest traces of human settlement on Thásos date from the late Neolithic period. About the middle of the second millennium B.C. Phoenicians settled on the island, but were later displaced by Thracians. In the seventh century B.C. Ionian Greeks from Páros captured Thásos from the Thracians and thereafter grew prosperous through gold- and silver-mining and trade. Between 464 and 404 B.C. the island was occupied, after fierce resistance, by Athens, and later became subject to Philip II of Macedon.
After periods of Roman, Byzantine, Venetian and Bulgarian rule Thásos was occupied by the Turks in 1455. Between 1841 and 1902 it was an appanage of the Khedive of Egypt. It was occupied by Greek forces in 1912, during the first Balkan War.
Thásos, an attractive and fertile island, well watered in the north and east, lies just off the eastern Macedonian coast in the northern Aegean, here called the Sea of Thrace (where deposits of oil have recently been found). It is occupied by a range of wooded hills rising to 1,203m/3,947ft in Mt Ypsári and slashed by deep valleys. The northern and eastern slopes fall steeply down to the sea; on the south and west sides the hills slope down more gradually, forming numerous deep sandy bays along the coasts. The island's income comes from farming, mining (copper, zinc) and increasingly from the tourist trade.
The earliest traces of human settlement on Thásos date from the late Neolithic period. About the middle of the second millennium B.C. Phoenicians settled on the island, but were later displaced by Thracians. In the seventh century B.C. Ionian Greeks from Páros captured Thásos from the Thracians and thereafter grew prosperous through gold- and silver-mining and trade. Between 464 and 404 B.C. the island was occupied, after fierce resistance, by Athens, and later became subject to Philip II of Macedon.
After periods of Roman, Byzantine, Venetian and Bulgarian rule Thásos was occupied by the Turks in 1455. Between 1841 and 1902 it was an appanage of the Khedive of Egypt. It was occupied by Greek forces in 1912, during the first Balkan War.
Address:
Thasos Tourist Office, Town Hall, Thásos , Greece
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