Crete: Geography

Crete on the map is an odd, horned, wasp-waisted creature that seems to scoot along the 35th parallel, midway between Europe, Africa and Asia: its south coast is only 198 miles (320km) from Egypt and further south than the Mediterranean coasts of Morocco and Algeria.

It is Greece’s largest island, and the fifth largest in the Mediterranean after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus and Corsica, roughly 160 miles long and an average of 30 miles wide (260 by 50 km). These rather limp numbers are ground into nonsense, however, by Crete’s tremendous mountain ranges, especially the White Mountains (Lefká Óri) and the Idaean Mountains, centred on legendary Mount Ida or Psilorítis, both topping 8,000ft (2,400m), covered with snow each year until June and enough to make any journey from A to B an adventure.