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- The largest Greek island, in the E
- Mediterranean Sea, 100 km/62 mi SE of
- mainland Greece. area 8,378 sq km/3,234 sq mi
- capital Iraklion towns Khania (Canea),
- Rethymnon, Aghios Nikolaos products citrus
- fruit, olives, wine population (1981) 502,000
- language Cretan dialect of Greek history it
- has remains of the Minoan
- civilization 3000-1400 BC, (see Knossos) and
- was successively under Roman, Byzantine,
- Venetian, and Turkish rule. The island was
- annexed by Greece 1913. In 1941 it was
- captured by German forces from Allied troops
- who had retreated from the mainland and was
- retaken by the Allies 1944.
-