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Astypalea

Astypalea is actually part of the Dodecanese group of islands but is included here because, in many ways, it has more in common with the Cyclades. It is also closer to the outlying Cyclades islands of Amorgos and Anafi than it is to any of the Dodecanese islands. Also, for the island traveller, access is easier from the Cyclades than from the Dodecanese.

It is said that, in 1832, after the Greek War of Independence, the ‘Great Powers’ of Britain, France and Russia, negotiating the treaty conditions for the boundaries of the new Greek state, had such a poor map of the Aegean that, when they drew the ‘lines in the sea’, Astypalea was overlooked and was ceded to Turkey instead of Greece. For the next 116 years the Astypalians suffered Turkish rule followed by Italian occupation before being reunited with Greece in 1948 as part of the Dodecanese territories, where it has remained administratively since.