The Sporades
The Sporades are an archipelago of 24 islands located in the Aegean Sea, south of Thessaly, near Volos and the peninsula of Mount Pelion. They are located at the southwestern end of our north Aegean arc and take their name from the ancient Greek sporas which means "scattered". Four main islands group the majority of the population. They are Skiathos (50 km2, 5 000 inhabitants), Skopelos (95 km2, 4 700 inhabitants), Alonissos (65 km2, 3 000 inhabitants) and Skyros (208 km2, 2 700 inhabitants). The Sporades are famous for their beautiful beaches and their green nature. Skyros is a little bit different in this archipelago: less green, especially in its southern half, more arid, it is the most mountainous and most isolated island of the Sporades. Culminating in 792 m of altitude, in the mount Kochylas, it is situated about equidistant from Alonissos, Aghios Efstratios and Psara but only 35 km from Evia. Alonissos has a unique protected area in Greece: the National Marine Park which covers 2,500 km2 and is home to an unparalleled flora and fauna.
The islands of Thrace
North of our Aegean arc, the Thracian islands are bordered by the Thracian Sea and are located not far from the Dardanelles Strait, which gives access to the Black Sea. This set includes six main islands called the Thracian Sporades, four of which belong to Greece. First, there is Thassos (400 km2, 16 000 inhabitants), 8 km from the mainland and the most northern of the Greek islands. Mountainous, it culminates at more than 1 200 m of altitude, in the mount Ipsari. Further east, Samothrace (180 km2, 2,800 inhabitants) is located 2 hours by ferry from Alexandroupoli, the last Greek city before Turkey. Also very mountainous, the island is home to the highest point in the Aegean (excluding Crete): Mount Fengari (or Saos) rises to 1,611 m. The mountain is omnipresent, with tumultuous rivers cascading into the sea and an exuberant nature without equivalent in the Greek islands. These are two islands with a unique geology and geography.
Further away from the coast, and going down south along our Aegean arc, Lemnos (480 km2, 17,000 inhabitants) offers very different landscapes: rare vegetation, sand dunes reminiscent of the Sahara and strong winds are the lot of this island far from the tourist circuits. Even further south, Aghios Efstratios (45 km2, 300 inhabitants) is one of the most isolated islands in Greece. It is not for nothing that this island far from everything was chosen as a land of exile and deportation over the years.
The islands of Thrace are completed by two Turkish islands: Gökçeada or Imbros (286 km2, 9,400 inhabitants), halfway between Samothrace and the Gallipoli peninsula, and, further south, along the Anatolia, Bozcaada or Tenedos (40 km2, 2,500 inhabitants). They are not connected to Greece but mainly to the port of Çanakkale. Fifty kilometers south of Bozcaada begin the North Aegean islands (Βόρειο Αιγαίο/Vorio Egaio).
North Aegean Islands
This name, "islands of the North Aegean", corresponds to the administrative entity formed by the large islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos and Ikaria, in addition to their small satellite islands. It is also a denomination which allows to differentiate them from the Aegean south-east formed by the archipelago of Dodecanese. They represent the southeastern end of our north Aegean arc. Enclosed near the Gulf of Edremit, 5 km from Turkey, Lesbos (1 630 km2, 100 000 inhabitants) is the third largest Greek island after Crete and Evia. Its capital Mytilene (30 000 inhabitants) is a major administrative and university center for the region. The island has a varied landscape with two large bays and two peaks over 900 m high. It has preserved the traces of its volcanic past with a petrified forest made of trees fossilized 20 million years ago.
47 km to the south, the second large island is Chios (840 km2, 55 000 inhabitants). It is separated from the Turkish peninsula of Batı Burnu ("Western Cape") by the Chios Strait, which is less than 7 km wide. While the northern part of the island has two peaks over 1,100 m high, the southern part produces the purest mastic gum in the world, in a flat landscape. Chios also has two mini archipelagos. The first one, composed of six islands, is located 22 km to the northwest. It is dominated by Psara (40 km2, 450 inhabitants). The second, with nine islands, is located in the Strait of Chios, with Inousses (14 km2, 830 inhabitants) as the main island.
Continuing 30 km to the south, Samos (475 km2, 41,000 inhabitants) occupies the Gulf of Kuşadası, 1.6 km from the Turkish mainland at the Strait of Mycale. Very mountainous like the neighboring region of Ephesus, the island rises to 1,434 m above sea level at Mount Kerkis. But it has fertile plains and valleys giving the famous Muscat of Samos. Its airport is feared by pilots because of the meltemi that blows to the Cyclades in summer. Not far to the southwest, the island ofIkaria (260 km2, 8,500 inhabitants) and the mini-archipelago of Fourni dominated by the island of the same name (30 km2, 1,500 inhabitants) close our north Aegean arc. Ikaria is almost entirely covered by the Atheras massif (1,040 m) while Fourni offers a particularly jagged coastline, forming a lace between land and sea.
Then begins the Dodecanese, with Patmos located 15 km south of Fourni.
The sea, the sea, the sea
In this northern corner of the Aegean Sea, dangerous currents are rarer in the Sporades and Thracian islands but are frequent in the eastern islands, especially around Psara, northwest of Ikaria and towards the coast of Fourni. This explains the historical importance of these islands on the pirate and trade routes between Asia Minor, the Black Sea and the rest of the Mediterranean and the presence of many wrecks in the seabed. On some islands, such as Lemnos, Lesbos or Samos, the meltemi blows in summer and can be violent: it sometimes makes navigation impracticable but lends itself to water sports. This being said, most of the time you will be able to enjoy the kilometers of coastline that are available to visitors without any constraints.
The Blue Flag is awarded to a large number of beaches in the North Aegean: this international label recognizes the most touristic islands which, despite the large number of visitors, have a policy of sustainable tourism development and offer quality water and clean beaches. Thus, in 2022, 11 beaches of the Sporades, 10 beaches of the Thracian islands and more than 30 beaches of the North Aegean islands have received the Blue Flag label. The other beaches are also very clean, but do not fit into the Blue Flag approach, being much less touristy.
Increased risk of earthquakes
Greece is the European country with the highest seismic activity, and the North Aegean is particularly prone to the shaking of the god Poseidon. The Eurasian and African tectonic plates converge at the Aegean fault, which runs between Turkey and North Africa and passes under the islands of this guide. This explains the increased seismic activity of the region: almost all the islands of the North Aegean have experienced tragic earthquakes in recent years or decades, and every year earthquakes more or less strong punctuate the calendar. The last major earthquakes recorded in the region were in 2020 in Samos, with a magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale, in 2017 in Lesbos (6.3 on the Richter scale) and in 2014 in Lemnos (6.9 on the Richter scale).
