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Crete

• Crete Island
• Greek administrative region
• own names:
  - Ancient Greek: Krete
  - Modern Greek: Kriti
  - Italian: Candia
  - Turkish: Girid

Contents

• Flag

• Meaning/Origin of the Flag

• Coat of Arms

• Meaning/Origin of the Coat of Arms

• Map

• Numbers and Facts

• History

• Origin of the Country's Name

Flag

1898–1913
Flag of Cretan State,
Source, by: Die Welt der Flaggen

Meaning/Origin of the Flag

The flag of Crete contains first of all the Greek symbolism of the white cross on blue ground and reminds of the Greek cross-flag. But in the upper quadrant it has a red field with a white star, distantly reminding of the Turkish flag (the island stood nominally under Turkish supremacy until 1908), naturally deleting the Islamic crescent, and only the white star remained as symbol of freedom and independence (1898-1913).

Source: Volker Preuß

Coat of Arms

1898–1913,
Coat of arms of Cretan State,
Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Meaning/Origin of the Coat of Arms

Structure and design of the coat of arms of the State of Crete was very much based on the coat of arms of Greece at that time. The shield shows the Greek symbolism in form of the white cross on a blue background. The upper corner, however, shows a red field with a white star, which is remotely reminiscent of the Turkish flag (the island was de facto under Turkish sovereignty until 1908), although the Islamic crescent was of course omitted and only the white star remained as a symbol of freedom and independence.

Source: Volker Preuß

Map

Location:

Source: Freeware, University of Texas Libraries,
modyfied by: Volker Preuß

Numbers and Facts

Area: 3.189 square miles

Inhabitants: 636.504 (2020)

Density of Population: 199 inh./sq.mi.

Capital: Iraklion (Heraklion, Hêrákleion, Iraklio), 211.370 inh. (2011)

official Language: New Greek

Currency: 1 Euro (€) = 100 Cent

Time Zone: GMT + 2 h

Source: Wikipedia (EN)

History

3000–1150 B.C. · Minoan Empire on Crete

1200 B.C. · settlement by the Dorians

69/67 B.C. · Roman conquest

64 B.C. · Roman province

395 · at the partition of the Roman Empire Crete comes to the East Roman Empire (Byzantium)

823–961 · Arabian occupation

1212 · conquest by Venice

1669 · conquest by the Ottoman Empire

1898 · internal self government

1908 · Greek supremacy

1913 · to Greece

1941–1945 · occupied by German paratroops

Source: Atlas zur Geschichte, Discovery '97, Weltgeschichte

Origin of the Country's Name

The name of the island was already "Krete" in ancient times and even in ancient Greece the origin of the name was actually unknown and there were attempts to explain the origin of the name mostly mythologically.

Source: Wikipedia (DE)