Naxos is the largest island (428 km² ;) in the Cyclades island group in the Aegean Sea, which separates Greece and Turkey. The island was the center of archaic Cycladic culture, then part of classical Greek culture and is part of Greece today. It is a popular tourist destination, with easily accessible ruins. One set of ruins is what is left of a temple built on a rocky beach. Long ago there was an earthquake sending most of the temple into the sea. Still standing however are two columns with a single lintel across them. The remains of the structure resting in the sea can be seen from the shore and explored by swimmers.
Naxos has many very beautiful beaches, like the ones at Agia Anna, Agios Prokopios, Alikos, Castraki, Mikri Vigla, Plaka and Agios Georgios at Hora, the capital of the island, which has 7,000 inhabitants.
Naxos is famous as the most fertile island of the Cyclades. It has a good supply of water, in an area where water is usually inadequate. Mount Zas ("Zeus", 1004 meters) is the highest peak in the Aegean Sea, and it tends to trap the clouds, permitting greater rainfall.
In the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, with a Latin Emperor under the influence of the Venetians established at Constantinople, the VenetianMarco Sanudo conquered the island and soon captured and the rest of the islands of the Cyclades, establishing himself as Duke of Naxia, or Duke of the Archipelago. Twenty-one dukes in two dynasties ruled the Archipelago, until 1566; Venetian rule continued in scattered islands of the Aegean until 1714.
