Saria Island (), anciently known as Sarus or Saros (), is an

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 ...

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 a rocky, volcanic island just to the north of

Karpathos Karpathos (, ), also Carpathos, is the second largest of the Greek Dodecanese islands, in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Together with the neighboring smaller Saria Island it forms the municipality of Karpathos, which is part of the regional unit ...

, separated from it by a 100 m (330 ft) wide strait. It is part 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 ...

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

. In ancient times, a city-state called Saros was situated on the island. It was a member of the

Delian League The Delian League was a confederacy of Polis, Greek city-states, numbering between 150 and 330, founded in 478 BC under the leadership (hegemony) of Classical Athens, Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Achaemenid Empire, Persian ...

.Athenian Tribute Lists
/ref> Administratively, it is part of the municipal unit of Olympos. The 2011 census reported a population of 45 residents. It has little plant or animal life, and has a number of steep cliffs. Although only shepherds live on Saria now, the ruins of the ancient city of Nisyros can be found here. It is also a breeding area for Eleonora's falcons. Although the name is subject to dispute, scholars link it with the name of an ancient Greek princess named Katherine from a line of Saria royalty. Greek legends say she was as beautiful as Helen of Troy and so they named an island after her. On the island of Saria, it is

recorded history Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world h ...

that a kingdom existed named Mikri Nisyros.

References

External links

Map of Saria Island in relation to community of Olympos and Karpathos Island
Islands of Greece Dodecanese Landforms of Karpathos-Kasos Islands of the South Aegean Members of the Delian League Natura 2000 in Greece {{AncientAegean-geo-stub