Home > Cyclades

The Cyclades, from the Greek Κυκλάδες, ("circular," modern Greek Kikládhes) is the name of an island group south-east of the mainland of Greece. It is a part of the vast number of islands which constitute the Greek archipelago in the Aegean Sea. The name was originally used to indicate those islands that formed a rough circle around the sacred island of Delos (map)

The Cyclades are comprised of around 220 islands, with the major ones being Amorgos , Anafi , Ándros, Antiparos, Delos, Ios, Kéa, Kimolos , Kithnos , Mílos, Mykonos, NáxosFor the radar detector used by the Germans during World War II, see Naxos radar detector''. Naxos is the largest island ( 428 km²) in the Cyclades island group in the Aegean Sea, which separates Greece and Turkey. The island was the center of archaic Cycl, PárosParos or Paro an island in the Aegean Sea, one of the largest of the group of the Cyclades. It lies to the west of Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about 6 m. broad, and with which it is now grouped together, in popular language, under the c, PholegandrosPholegandros or Folegandros is a small Greek island of the Aegean Sea, which, together with Sikinos, Ios, Anafi and Santorini, forms the southern part of the Cyclades. Its surface is about 32 square kilometres (12. 4 square miles) and it has 700 inhabitan, Serifos , Sifnos , Sikinos , SírosSiros is a Greek island in the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. It is considered the "capital" of the Cyclades. See also: List of islands of Greece External link Siros is also a commune in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques departement in France. Islands of Greece., Tínos and Santorini (Thira).

The islands are peaks of a submerged mountainous terrain, with the exception of two volcanicThis article is about volcanoes geology. For the action movie see: Volcano (movie). A volcano (plural, volcanoes) is a geological landform (usually a mountain) where magma (rock of the earth's interior made molten or liquid by high pressure and temperatur islands, Melos and Santorini (Thera). The climateThe climate is the weather averaged over a long period of time. A descriptive saying is that "climate is what you expect, weather is what you get". The IPCC glossary definition is: : Climate in a narrow sense is usually defined as the “average weather”, o is generally dry and mild, but with the exception of Naxos the soil is not very fertile: agricultural produce includes wine, fruit, wheat, olive oil, and tobacco.

The significant Early Bronze Age Cycladic culture is best known for its schematic female idols carved out of the islands' pure white marble centuries before the great Middle Bronze Age (" Minoan") culture arose in Crete, to the south. Each of the small Cycladic islands could support no more than a few thousand people, and when the highly organized palace-culture of Crete arose, the islands faded into insignificance, with the exception of Delos, which retained its archaic reputation as a sanctuary through the period of Classical Greek civilization.

The first archaeological excavations of the 1880s were followed by systematic work by the British School at Athens and by Christos Tsountas, who investigated burial sites on several islands in 1898-99 and coined the term "Cycladic civilization" Interest lagged, then picked up in the mid-20th century, as collectors competed for the modern-looking figures that seemed so similar to sculpture by Jean Arp or Constantine Brancusi . Sites were looted and a brisk trade in forgeries arose, but more accurate archaeology revealed the broad outlines of a farming and seafaring culture that had immigrated from Asia Minor ca 5000 BCE. Early Cycladic culture evolved in three phases, between ca 3300 - 2000 BCE, when it was increasingly swamped in the rising influence of Minoan Crete.

In recent decades the Cyclades islands have become extremely popular with European and other tourists, and as a result there have been problems with erosion, pollution, and water shortages.