László Németh
László Németh was a Hungarian dentist, writer and essayist. He was born in Nagybánya the son of Vilma Gaál. Over the Christmas of 1925, he married Ella Démusz, the daughter of János Démusz, a keeper of a public house. Between 1926 and 1944 they had six daughters. In 1959 he visited the Soviet Union. In the last part of his life he worked in Tihany, he died from a stroke on 3 March 1975 in Budapest and was buried in Farkasréti Cemetery, where he shares a grave with his wife. Németh was awarded a degree in dentistry in 1925, worked in Szent János Hospital, he founded a dental practice, but became a medical practitioner for schools. In 1926 he opened his dental surgery, although he continued to work as a freelance at the Saint John's Hospital in the Department of Neurology, he was a medical practitioner for Toldy School from 1926 to 1927, at the Egressy Street School from 1928 to 1931, at Medve Street School from 1933 to 1943, when he retired as a medical practitioner. In the winter of 1927 he contracted tuberculosis and travelled to Italy and Felsőgöd to convalesce, retiring from his career as a dentist.
Between 1945 and 1948 he was a casual teacher in the history of Hungarian literature, in mathematics, other subjects, at the grammar school in Hódmezővásárhely. In 1946 Minister of Education Dezső Keresztury offered him a job as a school inspector for the College of Further Education, he worked arranging the college's curriculum. In December 1925 Németh won the first prize in a competition run by Nyugat magazine for his novel Horváthné meghal. From 1926 he wrote articles and book reviews for Nyugat magazine, the Protestáns Szemle ("Protestant Review", Társadalomtudomány, Erdélyi Helikon and Napkelet, for which he was the leading critic until 1931. (In the "Protestant Review" and "Sunrise" he wrote under the pen name of László Lelkes. In 1927 he became a staff writer for Napkelet; the following year his wife travelled to Italy and France. In 1929 he had his first novel published in that magazine, Emberi színjáték. In 1930, he was awarded the Baumgarten Prize, but he returned it after receiving criticism from Lajos Hatvany.
In 1931 he took a érettségi – the equivalent of a General Certificate of Education – in Greek language, he studied it at university for a short while. On 29 November 1931 he attended a literary dinner in Debrecen hosted by the Ady Association, where five folk writers were warmly received at their public reading, his relationship with Nyugat magazine was somewhat strained, in the 1930s he had confrontations with the editor, Mihály Babits, a trustee of the Baumgarten Foundation. Because of his criticism of Sophie Török, his relationship with Nyugat broke down. In 1943 he wrote a monograph Magam helyett in which he stated that one of the reasons for this breakdown was Kodolányi, who disliked the fact that Németh had written a worded letter to Lóránt Basch, a trustee of the Baumgarten Foundation, suggesting that Kodolányi should be given financial assistance; because of this, the other trustee, Mihály Babits didn’t want to help him. It ended embarrassingly, as Németh was in Babits' flat when Basch telephoned Babits to tell him about Németh’s letter.
On 26 September Németh founded the Tanú magazine, which published 17 issues until 1937. From April 1934 he edited the Válasz newspaper with Lajos Fülep and Pál Gulyás and from 1934 to 1935 he was Head of the Department of Literature at the Magyar Rádió. During his leadership he tried to promote contemporary Hungarian literature. In his programmes there were many writers and poets who read their own works and discussed them with Németh – they became well-known at the time; the programme became popular and it influenced Hungarian literature and the Hungarian Radio Corporation’s programme scheduling policy. In 1934 Németh’s had his first book published, Ember és szerep. In 1935 he joined in the Új Szellemi Front and worked for the Sziget periodical and Magyarságtudomány. On 30 March 1938 the National Theatre premiered one of Villámfénynél. On the theatre had two other productions based on his works: Papucshős on 4 November 1939, Cseresznyés on 10 January 1942. On 13 May 1939 the National Theatre introduced his historical play, VII.
Gergely. Between 1939 and 1942 he was assistant to Zsigmond Móricz at the Kelet Népe magazine. During World War II he worked for the Híd and the Magyar Csillag periodicals. Németh published them in a book called A minőség forradalma, he was one of the lecturers at a conference in Balatonszárszó. At this conference he made a statement about Judaism, which influenced his life and others' attitude towards his works. From 1944 and on, when he made the same speech at conferences he omitted his remarks about Judaism. From 19 March 1944, during the German occupation he lived in Szilasbalhás and Budapest. For a short while he stopped writing articles for magazines. After the Soviet Red Army occupied Budapest, Németh and his family moved to Békés. In 1969 the publishers Magvető and Szépirodalmi issued his Collected Works. 1951 – the Attila József Prize for his translation of Leo Tolstoy's work Anna Karenina 1957 – the Kossuth Pr
Battle of Marathon
The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC, during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes; the battle was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Greece. The Greek army decisively defeated the more numerous Persians, marking a turning point in the Greco-Persian Wars; the first Persian invasion was a response to Athenian involvement in the Ionian Revolt, when Athens and Eretria had sent a force to support the cities of Ionia in their attempt to overthrow Persian rule. The Athenians and Eretrians had succeeded in capturing and burning Sardis, but they were forced to retreat with heavy losses. In response to this raid, Darius swore to burn down Eretria. According to Herodotus, Darius had his bow brought to him and shot an arrow "upwards towards heaven", saying as he did so: "Zeus, that it may be granted me to take vengeance upon the Athenians!".
Herodotus further writes that Darius charged one of his servants to say "Master, remember the Athenians" three times before dinner each day. At the time of the battle and Athens were the two largest city-states in Greece. Once the Ionian revolt was crushed by the Persian victory at the Battle of Lade in 494 BC, Darius began plans to subjugate Greece. In 490 BC, he sent a naval task force under Datis and Artaphernes across the Aegean, to subjugate the Cyclades, to make punitive attacks on Athens and Eretria. Reaching Euboea in mid-summer after a successful campaign in the Aegean, the Persians proceeded to besiege and capture Eretria; the Persian force sailed for Attica, landing in the bay near the town of Marathon. The Athenians, joined by a small force from Plataea, marched to Marathon, succeeded in blocking the two exits from the plain of Marathon; the Athenians sent a message asking for support to the Spartans. When the messenger arrived in Sparta, the Spartans were involved in a religious festival and gave this as a reason for not coming to aid of the Athenians.
The Athenians and their allies chose a location for the battle, with marshes and mountainous terrain, that prevented the Persian cavalry from joining the Persian infantry. Miltiades, the Athenian general, ordered a general attack against the Persian forces, composed of missile troops, he reinforced his flanks. The inward wheeling flanks enveloped the Persians; the Persian army broke in panic towards their ships, large numbers were slaughtered. The defeat at Marathon marked the end of the first Persian invasion of Greece, the Persian force retreated to Asia. Darius began raising a huge new army with which he meant to subjugate Greece. After Darius died, his son Xerxes I restarted the preparations for a second invasion of Greece, which began in 480 BC; the Battle of Marathon was a watershed in the Greco-Persian wars, showing the Greeks that the Persians could be beaten. The battle showed the Greeks that they were able to win battles without the Spartans, as they had relied on Sparta previously; this victory was due to the Athenians, Marathon raised Greek esteem of them.
Since the following two hundred years saw the rise of the Classical Greek civilization, enduringly influential in western society, the Battle of Marathon is seen as a pivotal moment in Mediterranean and European history. The main source for the Greco-Persian Wars is the Greek historian Herodotus. Herodotus, called the "Father of History", was born in 484 BC in Halicarnassus, Asia Minor, he wrote his Enquiries around 440–430 BC, trying to trace the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars, which would still have been recent history. Herodotus's approach was novel, at least in Western society, he does seem to have invented "history" as we know it; as Holland has it: "For the first time, a chronicler set himself to trace the origins of a conflict not to a past so remote so as to be utterly fabulous, nor to the whims and wishes of some god, nor to a people's claim to manifest destiny, but rather explanations he could verify personally." Some subsequent ancient historians, despite following in his footsteps, criticised Herodotus, starting with Thucydides.
Thucydides chose to begin his history where Herodotus left off, may therefore have felt that Herodotus's history was accurate enough not to need re-writing or correcting. Plutarch criticised Herodotus in his essay On the malice of Herodotus, describing Herodotus as "Philobarbaros", for not being pro-Greek enough, which suggests that Herodotus might have done a reasonable job of being even-handed. A negative view of Herodotus was passed on to Renaissance Europe. However, since the 19th century his reputation has been rehabilitated by archaeological finds which have confirmed his version of events; the prevailing modern view is that Herodotus did a remarkable job in his Historiai, but that some of his specific details should be viewed with skepticism. There are still some historians who believe Herodotus made up much of his story; the Sicilian historian Diodorus Siculus, writing in the 1st century BC in his Bibliotheca Historica provides an
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. Crete and a number of surrounding islands and islets constitute the region of Crete, one of the 13 top-level administrative units of Greece; the capital and the largest city is Heraklion. As of 2011, the region had a population of 623,065. Crete forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece, while retaining its own local cultural traits, it was once the centre of the Minoan civilisation, the earliest known civilisation in Europe. The palace of Knossos lies in Crete; the island is first referred to as Kaptara in texts from the Syrian city of Mari dating from the 18th century BC, repeated in Neo-Assyrian records and the Bible. It was known in ancient Egyptian as Keftiu suggesting a similar Minoan name for the island; the current name of Crete is thought to be first attested in Mycenaean Greek texts written in Linear B, through the words ke-re-te, ke-re-si-jo, "Cretan".
In Ancient Greek, the name Crete first appears in Homer's Odyssey. Its etymology is unknown. One proposal derives it from a hypothetical Luwian word, *kursatta. In Latin, it became Creta; the original Arabic name of Crete was Iqrīṭiš, but after the Emirate of Crete's establishment of its new capital at ربض الخندق Rabḍ al-Ḫandaq, both the city and the island became known as Χάνδαξ or Χάνδακας, which gave Latin and Venetian Candia, from which were derived French Candie and English Candy or Candia. Under Ottoman rule, in Ottoman Turkish, Crete was called Girit. Crete is the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, it is located in the southern part of the Aegean Sea separating the Aegean from the Libyan Sea. The island has an elongated shape: it spans 260 km from east to west, is 60 km at its widest point, narrows to as little as 12 km. Crete covers an area of 8,336 km2, with a coastline of 1,046 km, it lies 160 km south of the Greek mainland. Crete is mountainous, its character is defined by a high mountain range crossing from west to east, formed by three different groups of mountains: The White Mountains or Lefka Ori 2,454 m The Idi Range (Psiloritis 35.18°N 24.82°E / 35.18.
The island has a number of gorges, such as the Samariá Gorge, Imbros Gorge, Kourtaliotiko Gorge, Ha Gorge, Platania Gorge, the Gorge of the Dead and Richtis Gorge and waterfall at Exo Mouliana in Sitia. The rivers of Crete include the Ieropotamos River, the Koiliaris, the Anapodiaris, the Almiros, the Giofyros, Megas Potamos. There are only two freshwater lakes in Crete: Lake Kournas and Lake Agia, which are both in Chania regional unit. Lake Voulismeni at the coast, at Aghios Nikolaos, was a freshwater lake but is now connected to the sea, in Lasithi. Lakes that were created by dams exist in Crete. There are three: the lake of Aposelemis Dam, the lake of Potamos Dam, the lake of Mpramiana Dam. A large number of islands and rocks hug the coast of Crete. Many are visited by tourists, some are only visited by biologists; some are environmentally protected. A small sample of the islands includes: Gramvousa the pirate island opposite the Balo lagoon Elafonisi, which commemorates a shipwreck and an Ottoman massacre Chrysi island, which hosts the largest natural Lebanon cedar forest in Europe Paximadia island where the god Apollo and the goddess Artemis were born The Venetian fort and leper colony at Spinalonga opposite the beach and shallow waters of Elounda Dionysades islands which are in an environmentally protected region together the Palm Beach Forest of Vai in the municipality of Sitia, LasithiOff the south coast, the island of Gavdos is located 26 nautical miles south of Hora Sfakion and is the southernmost point of Europe.
Crete straddles two climatic zones, the Mediterranean and the North African falling within the former. As such, the climate in Crete is Mediterranean; the atmosphere can be quite humid, depending on the proximity to the sea, while winter is mild. Snowfall is rare in the low-lying areas. While some mountain tops are snow-capped for most of the year, near the coast snow only stays on the ground for a few minutes or hours. However, a exceptional cold snap swept the island in February 2004, during which period the whole island was blanketed with snow. During the Cretan summer, average temperatures reach the high 20s-low 30s Celsius, with maxima touching the upper 30s-mid 40s; the south coast, including the Mesara Pla
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
The National Archaeological Museum in Athens houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity. It is considered one of the greatest museums in the world and contains the richest collection of artifacts from Greek antiquity worldwide, it is situated in the Exarcheia area in central Athens between Epirus Street, Bouboulinas Street and Tositsas Street while its entrance is on the Patission Street adjacent to the historical building of the Athens Polytechnic university. The first national archaeological museum in Greece was established by the governor of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias in Aigina in 1829. Subsequently, the archaeological collection was relocated to a number of exhibition places until 1858, when an international architectural competition was announced for the location and the architectural design of the new museum; the current location was proposed and the construction of the museum's building began in 1866 and was completed in 1889 using funds from the Greek Government, the Greek Archaeological Society and the society of Mycenae.
Major benefactors were Eleni Tositsa who donated the land for the building of the museum, Demetrios and Nikolaos Vernardakis from Saint Petersburg who donated a large amount for the completion of the museum. The initial name for the museum was The Central Museum, it was renamed to its current name in 1881 by Prime Minister of Greece Charilaos Trikoupis. In 1887 the important archaeologist Valerios Stais became the museum's curator. During World War II the museum was closed and the antiquities were sealed in special protective boxes and buried, in order to avoid their destruction and looting. In 1945 exhibits were again displayed under the direction of Christos Karouzos; the south wing of the museum houses the Epigraphic Museum with the richest collection of inscriptions in the world. The inscriptions museum expanded between 1953 and 1960 with the architectural designs of Patroklos Karantinos; the museum has an imposing neo-classical design, popular in Europe at the time and is in accordance with the classical style artifacts that it houses.
The initial plan was conceived by the architect Ludwig Lange and it was modified by Panagis Kalkos, the main architect, Armodios Vlachos and Ernst Ziller. At the front of the museum there is a large neo-classic design garden, decorated with sculptures; the building has undergone many expansions. Most important were the construction of a new east wing in the early 20th century based on the plans of Anastasios Metaxas and the construction of a two-storeyed building, designed by George Nomikos, during 1932–1939; these expansions were necessary to accommodate the growing collection of artifacts. The most recent refurbishment of the museum took more than 1.5 years to complete, during which the museum remained closed. It reopened in July 2004, in time for the Athens Olympics and it included an aesthetic and technical upgrade of the building, installation of a modern air-conditioning system, reorganisation of the museum's collection and repair of the damage caused by the 1999 earthquake; the Minoan frescoes rooms opened to the public in 2005.
On May 2008 the Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis inaugurated the much anticipated collection of Egyptian antiquities and the collection of Eleni and Antonis Stathatos. Today, there is a renewed discussion regarding the need to further expand the museum to adjacent areas. A new plan has been made for a subterranean expansion at the front of the museum; the museum's collections are organised in sections: The prehistoric collection displays objects from the Neolithic era and Mid-Bronze age, objects classified as Cycladic and Mycenaean art. There are ceramic finds from various important Neolithic sites such as Dimini and Sesclo from middle Helladic ceramics from Boeotia and Phthiotis; some objects from Heinrich Schliemann excavations in Troy are on display. Cycladic collection features the famous marble figurines from the Aegean islands of Delos and Keros including the Lutist; these mysterious human representations, which resemble modern art and inspired many artists such as Henry Moore, came from the 3rd millennium BC old cemeteries of Aegean islands along with bronze tools and containers.
Mycenean civilization is represented by stone and ceramic pots, ivory and faience objects, golden seals and rings from the vaulted tombs in Mycenae and other locations in the Peloponnese. Of great interest are the two golden cups from Vafeio showing a scene of the capture of a bull. Mycenean collection includes the magnificent 19th-century finds of Heinrich Schliemann in Mycenae from the Grave Circle A and the earlier Grave Circle B. Most notable are the golden funerary masks which covered the faces of deceased Mycenean nobles. Among them, the most famous is the one, named erroneously as the mask of Agamemnon. There are finds from the citadel of Mycenae including relief stelae, golden containers, glass and amber tools and jewels. Other features include an ivory carving of two goddesses with a child, a painted limestone head of a goddess and the famous warrior's vase dating from the 12th century; the Egyptian collection dates back to the last twenty years of the 19th century. Notable is the donation of the Egyptian government which in 1893 offered nine mummies of the era of the Pharaohs.
However, the Egyptian collection is by two donors, Ioannis Dimitriou and of Alexandros Rostovic. In total the collection includes more than 6000 artifacts, 1100 of which are available presently for the public. Th
Greece
Greece the Hellenic Republic, self-identified and known as Hellas, is a country located in Southern and Southeast Europe, with a population of 11 million as of 2016. Athens is largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is located at the crossroads of Europe and Africa. Situated on the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, Turkey to the northeast; the Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a large number of islands, of which 227 are inhabited. Eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres; the country consists of nine geographic regions: Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace and the Ionian Islands.
Greece is considered the cradle of Western civilisation, being the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, Western literature, political science, major scientific and mathematical principles, Western drama and notably the Olympic Games. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as poleis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Philip of Macedon united most of the Greek mainland in the fourth century BC, with his son Alexander the Great conquering much of the ancient world, from the eastern Mediterranean to India. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming an integral part of the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine Empire, in which Greek language and culture were dominant. Rooted in the first century A. D. the Greek Orthodox Church helped shape modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World. Falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence.
Greece's rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The sovereign state of Greece is a unitary parliamentary republic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, a high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the tenth member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001, it is a member of numerous other international institutions, including the Council of Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Greece's unique cultural heritage, large tourism industry, prominent shipping sector and geostrategic importance classify it as a middle power, it is the largest economy in the Balkans. The names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages and cultures.
The Greek name of the country is Hellas or Ellada, its official name is the Hellenic Republic. In English, the country is called Greece, which comes from Latin Graecia and means'the land of the Greeks'; the earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, in the Greek province of Macedonia. All three stages of the stone age are represented for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries, as Greece lies on the route via which farming spread from the Near East to Europe. Greece is home to the first advanced civilizations in Europe and is considered the birthplace of Western civilisation, beginning with the Cycladic civilization on the islands of the Aegean Sea at around 3200 BC, the Minoan civilization in Crete, the Mycenaean civilization on the mainland; these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek.
The Mycenaeans absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC, during a time of regional upheaval known as the Bronze Age collapse. This ushered from which written records are absent. Though the unearthed Linear B texts are too fragmentary for the reconstruction of the political landscape and can't support the existence of a larger state contemporary Hittite and Egyptian records suggest the presence of a single state under a "Great King" based in mainland Greece; the end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to the year of the first Olympic Games. The Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, which spread to the shores of the Black Sea, So
Cephalonia
Cephalonia or Kefalonia also known as Kefallinia or Kephallenia, is the largest of the Ionian Islands in western Greece and the 6th largest island in Greece after Crete, Lesbos and Chios. It is a separate regional unit of the Ionian Islands region, the only municipality of the regional unit, it was a former Latin Catholic diocese Kefalonia–Zakynthos and short-lived titular see as just Kefalonia. The capital of Cephalonia is Argostoli. An aition explaining the name of Cephallenia and reinforcing its cultural connections with Athens associates the island with the mythological figure of Cephalus, who helped Amphitryon of Mycenae in a war against the Taphians and Teleboans, he was rewarded with the island of Same. Cephalonia has been suggested as the Homeric Ithaca, the home of Odysseus, rather than the smaller island bearing this name today. Robert Bittlestone, in his book Odysseus Unbound, has suggested that Paliki, now a peninsula of Cephalonia, was a separate island during the late Bronze Age, it may be this which Homer was referring to when he described Ithaca.
A project which started in the Summer of 2007 and lasted three years has examined this possibility. Cephalonia is referenced in relation to the goddess Britomartis, as the location where she is said to have'received divine honours from the inhabitants under the name of Laphria'. During the Middle Ages, the island was the center of the Byzantine theme of Cephallenia until 1185. After 1185 it became part of the County palatine of Kephalonia and Zakynthos under the Kingdom of Sicily until its last Count Leonardo III Tocco was defeated and the island conquered by the Ottomans in 1479; the Turkish rule lasted only until 1500, when Cephalonia was captured by a Spanish-Venetian army, a rare Venetian success in the Second Ottoman–Venetian War. From on Cephalonia and Ithaca remained part of the Stato da Mar of the Venetian Republic until its end, following the fate of the Ionian islands, completed by the capture of Lefkas from the Turks in 1684; the Treaty of Campoformio dismantling the Venetian Republic awarded the Ionian Islands to France, a French expeditionary force with boats captured in Venice taking control of the islands in June 1797.
Because of the liberal situation on the island, the Venetian governor Marc'Antonio Giustiniani printed Hebrew books and exported them to the whole eastern mediterranean. In 1596 the Venetians built one of Cephalonia's main tourist attractions today. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, the island was one of the largest exporters of currants in the world with Zakynthos, owned a large shipping fleet commissioning ships from the Danzig shipyard, its towns and villages were built high on hilltops, to prevent attacks from raiding parties of pirates that sailed the Ionian Sea during the 1820s. Venice was conquered by France in 1797 and Cephalonia, along with the other Ionian Islands, became part of the French département of Ithaque. In the following year, 1798, the French were forced to yield the Ionian Islands to a combined Russian and Turkish fleet. From 1799 to 1807, Cephalonia was part of the Septinsular Republic, nominally under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire, but protected by Russia. By the Tilsit Treaty in 1807, the Ionian Islands were ceded back to France, which remained in control until 1809.
In 1809 Great Britain mounted a blockade on the Ionian Islands as part of the war against Napoleon, in September of that year they hoisted the British flag above the castle of Zakynthos. Cephalonia and Ithaca soon surrendered, the British installed provisional governments; the treaty of Paris in 1815 recognised the United States of the Ionian Islands and decreed that it become a British protectorate. Colonel Charles Philippe de Bosset became provisional governor between 1810 and 1814. During this period he was credited with achieving many public works, including the Drapano Bridge. A few years resistance groups started to form. Although their energy in the early years was directed to supporting the Greeks in the revolution against the Turks, it soon started to turn towards the British. By 1848 the resistance movement was gaining strength and there were skirmishes with the British Army in Argostoli and Lixouri, which led to some relaxation in the laws and to freedom of the press. Union with Greece was now a declared aim, by 1849, a growing restlessness resulted in more skirmishes.
The twenty-one instigators were hanged, another 34 were jailed and 87 whipped. Cephalonia, along with the other islands, were transferred to Greece in 1864 as a gesture of goodwill when the British-backed Prince William of Denmark became King George the First of the Hellenes. In 1864, together with all the other Ionian Islands, became a full member of the Greek state. In World War II, the island was occupied by Axis powers; until late 1943, the occupying force was predominantly Italian – the 33rd Infantry Division Acqui plus Navy personnel totalled 12,000 men – but about 2,000 troops from Germany were present. The island was spared the fighting, until the armistice with Italy concluded by the Allies in September 1943. Confusion followed on the island, as the Italians were hoping to return home, but German forces did not want the Italians' munitions to be used against them; as German reinforcements headed to the island the Italians dug in and after a referendum among the soldiers as to surrender or battle, they fought against the new German invasion.
The fighting came to a head at the siege of Argostoli. The Germans prevailed
Santorini
Santorini Thira and classic Greek Thera, is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km southeast of Greece's mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago, which bears the same name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera, it forms the southernmost member of the Cyclades group of islands, with an area of 73 km2 and a 2011 census population of 15,550. The municipality of Santorini includes the inhabited islands of Santorini and Therasia and the uninhabited islands of Nea Kameni, Palaia Kameni and Christiana; the total land area is 90.623 km2. Santorini is part of the Thira regional unit; the island was the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history: the Minoan eruption, which occurred about 3,600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization. The eruption left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of metres deep, it may have led indirectly to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, 110 km to the south, through a gigantic tsunami.
Another popular theory holds. It is the most active volcanic centre in the South Aegean Volcanic Arc, though what remains today is chiefly a water-filled caldera; the volcanic arc is 500 km long and 20 to 40 km wide. The region first became volcanically active around 3–4 million years ago, though volcanism on Thera began around 2 million years ago with the extrusion of dacitic lavas from vents around the Akrotiri. Santorini was named by the Latin Empire in the thirteenth century, is a reference to Saint Irene, from the name of the old cathedral in the village of Perissa – the name Santorini is a contraction of the name Santa Irini. Before it was known as Kallístē, Strongýlē, or Thēra; the name Thera was revived in the nineteenth century as the official name of the island and its main city, but the colloquial name Santorini is still in popular use. The present municipality of Thera, which covers all settlements on the islands of Santorini and Therasia, was formed at the 2011 local government reform, by the merger of the former Oia and Thera municipalities.
Oia is now called a Κοινότητα, within the municipality of Thera, it consists of the local subdivisions of Therasia and Oia. The municipality of Thera includes an additional 12 local subdivisions on Santorini island: Akrotiri, Episkopis Gonia, Exo Gonia, Karterados, Mesaria, Pyrgos Kallistis, Thera and Vourvoulos. Santorini's primary industry is tourism; the two main sources of wealth in Santorini are tourism. In recent years, Santorini has been voted one of the world's most beautiful islands. Santorini remains the home of a small, but flourishing wine industry, based on the indigenous Assyrtiko grape variety. White varieties include Athiri and Aidani, whereas red varieties include mavrotragano and mandilaria; the Cyclades are part of a metamorphic complex, known as the Cycladic Massif. The complex formed during the Miocene and was folded and metamorphosed during the Alpine orogeny around 60 million years ago. Thera is built upon a small, non-volcanic basement that represents the former non-volcanic island, 9 by 6 km.
The basement rock is composed of metamorphosed limestone and schist, which date from the Alpine Orogeny. These non-volcanic rocks are exposed at Mikro Profititis Ilias, Mesa Vouno, the Gavrillos ridge, Pyrgos and the inner side of the caldera wall between Cape Plaka and Athinios; the metamorphic grade is a blueschist facies, which results from tectonic deformation by the subduction of the African Plate beneath the Eurasian Plate. Subduction occurred between the Oligocene and the Miocene, the metamorphic grade represents the southernmost extent of the Cycladic blueschist belt. Volcanism on Santorini is due to the Hellenic Trench subduction zone southwest of Crete; the oceanic crust of the northern margin of the African Plate is being subducted under Greece and the Aegean Sea, thinned continental crust. The subduction compels the formation of the Hellenic arc, which includes Santorini and other volcanic centres, such as Methana and Kos; the island is the result of repeated sequences of shield volcano construction followed by caldera collapse.
The inner coast around the caldera is a sheer precipice of more than 300 metres drop at its highest, exhibits the various layers of solidified lava on top of each other, the main towns perched on the crest. The ground slopes outwards and downwards towards the outer perimeter, the outer beaches are smooth and shallow. Beach sand colour depends on; the water at the darker coloured beaches is warmer because the lava acts as a heat absorber. The area of Santorini incorporates a group of islands created by volcanoes, spanning across Thera, Aspronisi and Nea Kameni. Santorini has erupted many times, with varying degrees of explosivity. There have been at least twelve large explosive eruptions, of which at least four were caldera-forming; the most famous eruption is the Minoan eruption, detailed below
