About
CRETE
With
its 5,000 year history of civilization  ,
,
friendly
people,
clean
seas and
average 315 days sunshine
per year Crete
is an idyllic place for a holiday home or permanent residence.
This
island - the largest in
Greece
separates the Aegean
from the Libyan sea, marks the boundary between
Europe
and Africa
.
Majestic
mountains
rise
up in the centre - the White
Mountains ,
Psiloritis and Dikti.
Its plateau's are split by deep gorges and end up in fertile
valleys. The
scenery is constantly changing. Its villages are surrounded by greenery,
olive trees, orange groves, vineyards and early vegetable market
gardens. Old stone farm houses, monasteries
 and
villages are perched on mountain ridges, castles and chapels forgotten
on steep slopes. Shores, lined with forbidding rocks, often inaccessible,
also endless sandy or pebbly beaches. Crete
is renowned for the variety of its vegetation and wild-life
in its chestnut, oak and cypress forests . Not to mention its palm
forests (at Vai 
and
Preveli). Medical herbs and fragrant
shrubs, laudanum, dittany, marjoram and thyme, grow in rocky areas
and mountaintops, where it is also the home of the "Kri-kri"
or Cretan goat. Crete
is the largest Greek island and the fifth largest in the
Mediterranean
.
It is also the most Southerly habitable island within the European
Union ensuring an agreeable climate. The major settlements:-
(Xania ,
Rethymno 
Heraklion,
& Agios Nikolaos),
Some
of the finest sandy beaches in
Greece
are located on the north coast. The total population of the island
is around 536,980 (1991). There is no heavy industry on the island
and, apart from tourism, locals engage in livestock rearing (predominantly
sheep and goats) and produce high quality olive oil from the ubiquitous
olive. The Cretan property market is quite different when compared
to most other European countries, one example being the general
lack of 'For Sale
'
boards.
The reason is Cretans are too proud to let people know, that they
are in need to sell their property.
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