Dia (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Δία ði.a, also pronounced locally Ntia (Ντία di.a, is an uninhabited island off the northern coast of the

island of

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) 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, Cyprus, ...

. The island is 5 km long, 3 km wide and is located approximately 13 km north of Heraklion. Administratively, Dia is part of the community of Elia within the municipal unit of Gouves, Hersonissos municipality in

Heraklion Heraklion or Iraklion ( ; el, Ηράκλειο, , ) is the largest city and the administrative capital city, capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion (regional unit), Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in Gree ...

. In the south coast of Dia there are four coves, which are (from west to east) Agios Georgios, Kapari, Panagia (Madonna) and Agrielia. One more cove, that of Aginara, is to the east.

History

The island was formerly known as Standia, by juncture loss in the phrase ''στήν Δία'' (Greek for ''on Dia''). It was the principal port of Crete for centuries. Its four south coves have been used as anchorages since the Minoan period.

Mythology

The islet looks like a giant lizard when viewed from the city of

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities o ...

tells of a giant lizard that tried to destroy the island of Crete, however, Zeus turned it into stone with a thunderbolt, thus creating the island. The island is visible from Crete's capital city of Heraklion, as it would have been in the time of the Minoans, from

Knossos Knossos (also Cnossos, both pronounced ; grc, Κνωσός, Knōsós, ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city. Settled as early as the Neolithic period, the na ...

. Because of this, it was sometimes identified as the island that

Theseus Theseus (, ; grc-gre, Θησεύς ) was the mythical king and founder-hero of Athens. The myths surrounding Theseus his journeys, exploits, and friends have provided material for fiction throughout the ages. Theseus is sometimes describ ...

escaped to after killing the

Minotaur In Greek mythology, the Minotaur ( , ;. grc, ; in Latin as ''Minotaurus'' ) is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "p ...

Environment

On Dia there are a number of protected wildlife species including the snail

Albinaria ''Albinaria'' is a genus of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Clausiliidae Clausiliidae, also known by their common name the door snails, are a taxonomic family of small, very elongate, mostly ...

retusa, the lizard '' Podarcis erchardii schiebeli'', a wild subspecies of the

European rabbit The European rabbit (''Oryctolagus cuniculus'') or coney is a species of rabbit native to the Iberian Peninsula (including Spain, Portugal, and southwestern France), western France, and the northern Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa. It has b ...

(''Oryctolagus cuniculus cnossius''), and

Eleonora's falcon Eleonora's falcon (''Falco eleonorae'') is a medium-sized falcon. It belongs to the hobby group, a rather close-knit number of similar falcons often considered a subgenus ''Hypotriorchis''. The sooty falcon is sometimes considered its closest re ...

, known as ''mavropetritis'' in Greek. The island has been recognised as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Inte ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because it supports a breeding population of 300 – 380 pairs of the Eleonora's falcons. Dia is part of the European Network of Nature (Natura) 2000 and is a protected hunting ground. There are also a number of protected plants such as ''

Carlina diae ''Carlina'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. It is distributed from Madeira and the Canary Islands across Europe and northern Africa to Siberia and northwestern China.Kovanda, M. (2002)Observations on ''Carlina bieberste ...

''.

Ancient port

Isola della Standia - Francesco Basilicata - 1618

In 1976,

Jacques Cousteau Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful Aqua-Lung, open-circuit SCUBA ( self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). T ...

carried out underwater exploration around Dia and found the remains of an ancient port in the waters between Heraklion and Dia.Greekislands.co
French Rear Admiral's ship "La Therese" (1669)

References

External links

''Standia'' map
by

Marco Boschini Marco Boschini (1602–1681) was an Italian painter and engraver of the early Baroque period in Venice. He was born in Venice, and was educated in the school of Palma il Giovane. He painted ''The Last Supper'' for the sacristy of at Venice. He ...