Agathonísi () is a small Greek

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

located at the northernmost point of the

Dodecanese The Dodecanese (, ; , ''Dodekánisa'' , ) are a group of 15 larger and 150 smaller Greek islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Anatolia, of which 26 are inhabited. This island group generally define ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. It is surrounded by many smaller islands and is home to two villages, both inland; Megalo Chorio ("Big Village"), and Mikro Chorio ("Small Village"). Between them is the small settlement of Agios Georgios (Saint George), which forms the island's only harbor and consists of a few hotels and restaurants. The island is also locally known as ''Gaidaro'' ("Donkey"), or by its ancient name ''Tragea''. Front Arkoi Leipsoi Leros Back Agathonisi Farmakonisi Turkey coastline

Front Arkoi Leipsoi Leros Back Agathonisi Farmakonisi Turkey coastline

The highest point on the island is

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. This peak is located close to Mikro Chorio. The island covers an area of . It is made almost entirely of subcrystalline stratified

limestones Limestone is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Limestone forms when these ...

, and is covered with thorny macchia. In the late 1920s the island had 80 inhabitants, active in agriculture and sheep rearing. A census of the island in 1981 showed that it was populated by 133 people. The 1991 census showed that the population had dropped to 112. By the 2001 census the population had again risen to 158 residents, and in 2011 its population was 185, 168 of whom lived in Megalo Chorio, and only 17 in Mikro Chorio. The municipality of Agathonisi, which includes the uninhabited offshore islets of Glaros, Kouneli, Nera, and Psathonisio, has a combined land area of .

Name

In ancient times, Agathonisi was known as Psetoussa (). Ancient writers varied in recording its name: ''Tragia'' (Τραγία), ''Tragiae'' or ''Tragiai'' (Τραγίαι), ''Tragaeae'' or ''Tragaiai'' (Τραγαῖαι), and ''Tragaea'' or ''Tragaia'' (Τραγαία) are among the forms recorded. The island is known as ''Gaidaro'' in Italian and as ''Eşek Adası'' in Turkish.

History

Near the island,

Pericles Pericles (; ; –429 BC) was a Greek statesman and general during the Golden Age of Athens. He was prominent and influential in Ancient Athenian politics, particularly between the Greco-Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War, and was acclaimed ...

defeated the Samians in a naval engagement in 440 BCE. In modern times, the island (dependent on

Patmos Patmos (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Aegean Sea. It is famous as the location where, according to Christian belief, John of Patmos received the vision found in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, and where the book was written. ...

) was occupied in 1912 by the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy (, ) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy wa ...

during the

Italo-Turkish war The Italo-Turkish (, "Tripolitanian War", , "War of Libya"), also known as the Turco-Italian War, was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire from 29 September 1911 to 18 October 1912. As a result of this conflict, Italy captur ...

and, after being part of the

Italian Islands of the Aegean The Italian Islands of the Aegean (; ; ) were an archipelago of fourteen islands (the Dodecanese, except Kastellorizo) in the southeastern Aegean Sea, that—together with the surrounding islets—were ruled by the Kingdom of Italy from 1912 t ...

(of which it was the northernmost islet),Bertarelli (1929) p. 161 was ceded from Italy to Greece in 1947 with the Treaty of Peace.Dubin (2002), p. 438

Administration

In 2011, as part of the

Kallikratis Plan The Kallikratis Programme () is the common name of Greek law 3852/2010 of 2010, a major administrative reform in Greece. It brought about the second major reform of the country's administrative divisions following the 1997 Kapodistrias reform. ...

, the island's status has been upgraded from Community to Municipality.

Archipelago of Agathonisi

Near Agathonisi lie several islets: ''Psatonisi'', ''Strongili'', ''Neronisi'', ''Katagani'', all made with crystalline

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

s, and ''Kunellonisi'', which is made of

schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock generally derived from fine-grained sedimentary rock, like shale. It shows pronounced ''schistosity'' (named for the rock). This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a l ...

ose-crystalline rocks.

Election Results

References

Sources

* Populated places in Kalymnos (regional unit) Municipalities of the South Aegean Dodecanese Islands of Greece Landforms of Kalymnos (regional unit) Islands of the South Aegean

Notes

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