Greek Islands Portal

Megisti (or Kastelorizo) is the easternmost island in the Aegean.
The island lies 72 miles east of Rhodes and 328 nautical miles from the port of Piraeus. Together with the neighboring uninhabited islets, Ro, Strongyli and a few smaller ones, it is a separate municipality of the province of Rhodes, within the prefecture of the Dodecanese.
It has an area of 9 square kilometers and 19 kilometers of coastline.

The island has been inhabited since prehistoric times.
Later, Dorians settled here and built fortifications on the site of the present capital and at Paleokastro.
The island was conquered by the Romans, and the Byzantines.
It acquired the name Kastelorizo much later, from the castle built by the Knights of St. John in the 14t c., on the red rock (Castello- Rosso= red castle).
The conquering of the island continued from 1440 to 1522 consequently by the Egyptians, the Franks and the Turks. Megisti was subjected to the resistance of the Turkish dominion without resistance and in return only paid an annual tax and maintained the freedom of religion, language and national traditions. At that time, its merchant fleet had a prominent place among the merchant shipping of the Dodecanese.
Kastelorizo was bombed during First World War. It was then that residents started to immigrate.
This continued and after Second World War, when the island was bombed once again.
The island formally joined the Greek State on 7 March 1948 together with the other Dodecanese islands.

The island has become more popular in recent years, among tourists looking for an isolated place in the Dodecanese, thank also to the 1991 Oscar-winning movie Mediterraneo, which is set on this island.