Ro or Rho ( el, Ρω) is a small

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 ...

island in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, more precisely in the

Levantine Sea The Levantine Sea (Arabic: بحر الشام, tr, Levanten Denizi, el, Θάλασσα του Λεβάντε) is the easternmost part of the Mediterranean Sea. Geography The Levantine Sea is bordered by Turkey in the north and north-east co ...

, near

Kastellorizo Kastellorizo or Castellorizo (; el, Καστελλόριζο, Kastellórizo), officially Megisti ( ''Megísti''), is a Greece, Greek island and Communities and Municipalities of Greece, municipality of the Dodecanese in the Eastern Mediterranean ...

, close to the

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

coast. It is part of the municipality of Megísti (Kastellorizo) in the South Aegean region.

Description

Together with other islets in the surrounding region, Ro was the object of a sovereignty dispute in the 1920s between Turkey and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, which at the time was in possession of Kastellorizo and the Dodecanese islands. The dispute was solved in a 1932 treaty, which assigned Ro to the Kingdom of Italy. It came under Greek sovereignty in 1947, together with the other former Italian possessions in the Aegean. The islet is named ''Kara Ada'' ("black island") in

History

Anciently, the island was known as Rhoge ( grc, Ῥώγη). An inhabitant of the island was called Rogaeus ( grc, Ῥωγαῖος). Ancient fortifications show that during the

Hellenistic period In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...

and later, there was a small garrison post on the island. The three towers of

, Ro and Strongyli comprise the main links in a dense network of watchtowers constructed by the citizens of

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

during the Hellenistic period, to control the sea routes and the coast. Ro has been uninhabited for most of its modern history, except for the one Greek woman, with her husband and her mother, who made it famous, Despina Achladioti. Every day, Achladioti, also known as the Lady of Ro, raised a Greek flag over the island, until her death in 1982. A Greek

border outpost A border outpost, border out post, border observation post or BOP List of islands of Greece Greece has many islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227. The largest Greek island by a ...

Italian Islands of the Aegean The Italian Islands of the Aegean ( it, Isole italiane dell'Egeo; el, Ἰταλικαὶ Νῆσοι Αἰγαίου Πελάγους) were an archipelago of fourteen islands (the Dodecanese, except Kastellorizo) in the southeastern Aegean Sea, ...

References

* Kalliopi Bairami, "Ro" in: Andreas Vlachopoulos (ed.), ''Archaiologia: Nisia tou Aigaiou'', Melissa 2005, p. 375.

External links

Official website of Municipality of Megisti
{{Authority control Kastellorizo