{"id":24157,"date":"2026-07-31T12:18:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T06:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=24157"},"modified":"2026-07-31T13:21:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:51:56","slug":"crete-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/crete-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Crete Island"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Crete Island Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thousands of people were evacuated recently as fires threatened a tourist resort on the Greek island of Crete and continued to rage, fanned by violent winds.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Crete Island<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the<\/span><b> largest island of Greece.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is located in the southern part of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/aegean-sea\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Aegean Sea<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (an <\/span><b>arm of the Mediterranean<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Sea) 160 km to the south of the mainland of Greece.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Covering an area of 8,336 sq.km, it is the<\/span><b> fifth-largest Mediterranean Sea island.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>bordered <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by the <\/span><b>Sea of Crete in the north<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>Libyan Sea in the south<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>Myrtoan Sea in the west<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and the <\/span><b>Carpathian Sea in the east.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is relatively <\/span><b>long and narrow, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">stretching for about 260 km east-west and about 60 km at its widest point.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The island is characterized by a diverse landscape, including a<\/span><b> mountain chain <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that runs the length of the island, sandy beaches, and <\/span><b>fertile plains.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Crete\u2019s economy is primarily based on <\/span><b>tourism, agriculture, and shipping.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Capital and Largest City: Heraklion.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Crete Island <\/b><b>History<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The island of Crete has been i<\/span><b>nhabited since the Paleolithic Age<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by early <\/span><b>hominids<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The<\/span><b> earliest advanced European civilization<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>Minoan Civilization,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> started on the island around <\/span><b>2700-1420 BCE.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Minoan civilization<\/span><b> ended after a major earthquake,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and thereafter, the island\u2019s rule was<\/span><b> taken over by the Mycenaean civilization.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The island was then<\/span><b> subsequently ruled<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by the <\/span><b>Romans<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>Byzantines<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>Andalusians<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>Venetians<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and the <\/span><b>Ottomans<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>After the island\u2019s independence from Ottoman<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> rule, Crete became a <\/span><b>part of Greece.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the<\/span><b> Second World War<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the island was <\/span><b>occupied by the Nazi German <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">forces and also served as the battleground of the famous <\/span><b>\u201cBattle of Crete.\u201d<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News<\/b><strong>:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newindianexpress.com\/amp\/story\/world\/2026\/Jul\/30\/thousands-evacuated-from-raging-crete-wildfire-official\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>NIE<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crete Island is the largest island of Greece. Read more about Crete Island, Location, Capital, History, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":116224,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9117,21,22,23],"class_list":["post-24157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-crete-island","tag-prelims-pointers","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24157"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116236,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24157\/revisions\/116236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}