Sazan ( sq-definite, Sazani) is an

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

uninhabited

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

. The largest of Albania's islands, it is a designated

military exclusion zone A military exclusion zone (MEZ) is an area in the immediate vicinity of a military action established by a country to prevent the unauthorized entry of civilian personnel/equipment for their own safety or to protect natural assets already in place ...

; it lies in a strategically important location between the

Strait of Otranto The Strait of Otranto ( sq, Ngushtica e Otrantos; it, Canale d'Otranto; hr, Otrantska Vrata) connects the Adriatic Sea with the Ionian Sea and separates Italy from Albania. Its width at Punta Palascìa, east of Salento is less than . The st ...

and the mouth of the Bay of Vlorë, marking the border between the

Adriatic The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) ...

and

Ionian sea The Ionian Sea ( el, Ιόνιο Πέλαγος, ''Iónio Pélagos'' ; it, Mar Ionio ; al, Deti Jon ) is an elongated bay of the Mediterranean Sea. It is connected to the Adriatic Sea to the north, and is bounded by Southern Italy, including C ...

s. The island has a surface area of . It is long and wide, and its coastline measures about . In 2010, of the island's surrounding marine area was designated as the Karaburun-Sazan Marine Park. In clear weather, Sazan is sometimes visible from the coast of Salento,

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 ...

, to its west. The island has been open to the public since July 2015.

History

Sazon was known as ''Sason'' (Σάσων) to the ancient Greeks, and ''Saso'' to the ancient Romans. Pseudo Scylax mentioned it in the Periplus. And

Polybius Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail. Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...

wrote that there had been a military encounter there in 215 BC between the forces of

Philip V of Macedon Philip V ( grc-gre, Φίλιππος ; 238–179 BC) was king ( Basileus) of Macedonia from 221 to 179 BC. Philip's reign was principally marked by an unsuccessful struggle with the emerging power of the Roman Republic. He would lead Macedon ag ...

and the Romans. The island was part of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

, and later came under

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

rule. In 1279, it was captured by the Anjou of Naples, and in the 14th century it was held by Albanian lords, often under the protection of the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...

. Around 1400, the

Ottomans The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

captured it, but by 1696 it was controlled by the Venetians. In 1815, it came under the protection of Britain along with the Ionian Islands, which were made an autonomous republic. Saseno - Coronelli Vincenzo - 1688

In 1864, the island was ceded to

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

along with the rest of the Ionian Islands. It was considered part of Diapontia Islands. But Greece did not occupy it, and it came under the ''de facto'' control of the

. It was not until the

First Balkan War The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...

, in 1912, that Greece landed soldiers on the island and formally claimed it, calling it ''Sasona'' (Σάσωνα). After the end of the

Second Balkan War The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 16 ( O.S.) / 29 (N.S.) June 1913. Serbian and Greek armies r ...

in 1913,

and

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

pressed Greece to evacuate the southern part of modern Albania and the island. Due to the risk of starting a war with Italy, Greece evacuated it. Italy in turn occupied it on 30 October 1914, and established a military commander on the island, which is called Saseno in Italian. This was later ratified on 26 April 1915 by the secret Treaty of London. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Albania formally ceded the island to Italy on 2 September 1920 as part of the Albano-Italian protocol. The island was part of Italy from 1920 until after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, administratively part of Lagosta, in the province of Zara. In those years the Italian authorities built a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

and some naval fortifications, and populated the island with a few families of fishermen relocated from

Apulia it, Pugliese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographic ...

. The island was united to the Italian

Governatorate of Dalmatia The Governorate of Dalmatia ( it, Governatorato di Dalmazia) was a territory divided into three provinces of Italy during the Italian Kingdom and Italian Empire epoch. It was created later as an entity in April 1941 at the start of World War II ...

in 1941 during

and ceded to Albania on 10 February 1947, under the postwar

peace treaty A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, which formally ends a state of war between the parties. It is different from an armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring ...

with Italy.

Post-World War II

During the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

between the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and the United States, Albania relied heavily on the Soviet Union. During that time, the Soviets built a base for Whiskey-class submarines and a chemical/biological weapons plant on the island and surrounding areas. After the fall of

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

four submarines remained at Pasha Limani port in the bay of Vlore . To this day, many Soviet-era gas masks can still be found scattered around the valley of the island. The island now is uninhabited but there is a small Italo-Albanian naval base, used mainly to counter

contraband Contraband (from Medieval French ''contrebande'' "smuggling") refers to any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold. It is used for goods that by their nature are considered too dangerous or offensive in the eyes o ...

between southern Italy and Albania and as a training field for the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. In 2010, the island's surrounding sea waters, and those of adjacent

Karaburun Peninsula Karaburun Peninsula may refer to: *Karaburun Peninsula, Albania, a peninsula in Albania *Karaburun Peninsula, Turkey Karaburun Peninsula is a peninsula in the extreme western end of Turkey, a component of the larger Urla-Karaburun-Çeşme Penin ...

were proclaimed a National Marine Park by the Albanian government.

Environment

Geography and climate

Sazan is the largest island in the country and Albania's westernmost point. It is strategically located at the entrance to the Bay of Vlorë, in the eastern

separating

from Albania. It is also located at the informal junction line of the

and

Ionian Sea The Ionian Sea ( el, Ιόνιο Πέλαγος, ''Iónio Pélagos'' ; it, Mar Ionio ; al, Deti Jon ) is an elongated bay of the Mediterranean Sea. It is connected to the Adriatic Sea to the north, and is bounded by Southern Italy, including C ...

inside the

, which is just to the south according to international scientific bodies. The island is composed of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

rocks, which was formed during the Cretaceous period, while the eastern part is partially composed of terrigenic and cleistogenic deposits. It has four peaks, the highest standing at

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

followed by two peaks in the center and , and the lowest with in the south of the island. Sazan has a coastline of about characterized by sandy beaches, capes, rocky cliffs and underwater fauna. Along its western shore the cliffs descending up to underwater. Capes of the island include the Bay of Paradise (''Gjiri i Parajsës''), Bay of St. Nicholas (''Gjiri i Shënkollit''), Cape of Shënkoll, Cape of Kallam, Cape of Jug, Cape of Pëllumba, and Cape of Pulbardha. The island has a climate unusual in Albania, due to its maritime location. It is not

mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

but rather

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...

on account of its warm winters and hot summers. The climate and vegetation resemble those of the south 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, and ...

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

and even parts of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. The flora is different from that of the rest of Albania in that it is subtropical. A small

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

waterspout A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex (usually appearing as a funnel cloud, funnel-shaped cloud) that occurs over a body of water. Some are connected to a cumulus congestus cloud, some to a cumuliform cloud and some to a cumulonimbus clou ...

was spotted along the coast coming inland in August 2002.

Flora and fauna

Biogeographically Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, i ...

, Sazan Island falls within the Illyrian deciduous forests terrestrial

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

of the

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub is a biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The biome is generally characterized by dry summers and rainy winters, although in some areas rainfall may be uniform. Summers are typically hot in ...

. Due to the combination of southern geographic

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

and high

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

and as well the variation of climate, geological and hydrological conditions have contributed to the formation of a unique

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

inside the island. The variety of flora and vegetation can be explained by its strategically position between the western and eastern

. The island is home to 435 species (419 indigenous) of

vascular plant Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes () or collectively Tracheophyta (), form a large group of land plants ( accepted known species) that have lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They al ...

s, or 8.2% of Albania's entire vascular flora. There are only an endemic (''Limonium anfractum'') and 3 subendemic (''Centaurea pawlowski'', ''Scutellaria rupestris'' and ''Verbascum guicciardini'') plants. The varied relief creates various ecological environments for plants, further diversified by the dominant rock types which form siliceous and calcareous terrain on the territory of the park. The rocky shores and

sea

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...

s on the southern corners of Sazan are home to numerous

halophile The halophiles, named after the Greek word for "salt-loving", are extremophiles that thrive in high salt concentrations. While most halophiles are classified into the domain Archaea, there are also bacterial halophiles and some eukaryotic species, ...

species such as

lotus cytisoides ''Lotus cytisoides'' is a species of perennial herb in the family Fabaceae. They have a self-supporting growth form and compound, broad leaves. Individuals can grow to 0.11 m. Sources References {{Taxonbar, from=Q3260086 cytisoides Flo ...

and limonium anfractum. The forests of Sazan are generally composed of

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaf, leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is paral ...

forests with

holm oak Holm oak may refer to: * '' Quercus ilex'', tree native to South and Southeast Europe and parts of France * '' Quercus rotundifolia'', tree native to the Iberian Peninsula and Northwest Africa * ''Quercus agrifolia ''Quercus agrifolia'', the Cal ...

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

forests with

hophornbeam ''Ostrya'' is a genus of eight to 10 small deciduous trees belonging to the birch family Betulaceae. Common names include hop-hornbeam and hophornbeam. It may also be called ironwood, a name shared with a number of other plants. The genus is nat ...

and south European flowering ash. Pracht-Kieleidechse

Due to its specific topography, climatic, hydrological and geological conditions, the island is characterized by housing a unique vegetation and biodiversity. The fauna is represented by 15 species of

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s (including 8 species of bats such as the

common pipistrelle The common pipistrelle (''Pipistrellus pipistrellus'') is a small pipistrelle microbat whose very large range extends across most of Europe, North Africa, South Asia, and may extend into Korea. It is one of the most common bat species in the Brit ...

, and soprano pipistrelle), 39 species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s, 8 species of

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

s, 1 species of

amphibia Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arbore ...

and as well as 122 species of invertebrates. The bird species in Sazan with high conservation value include 23 songbirds, 5 bird of preys, 3 pigeons, and 3 swifts. The amphibians are represented by 1 of which include the green toad nesting in the wet deciduous forests and the forest streams. There are 8 reptile species. The Mediterranean house gecko, testudo hermanni boettgeri,

Balkan pond turtle The Balkan terrapin or western Caspian terrapin (''Mauremys rivulata'') is a species of terrapin in the family Geoemydidae. It is found in the Balkan Peninsula (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Ser ...

sheltopusik The sheltopusik (''Pseudopus apodus''), also commonly called Pallas's glass lizard the European legless lizard, or the European glass lizard, is a species of large glass lizard found from Southern Europe to Central Asia. Etymology ''Pseudo ...

blue-throated keeled lizard The blue-throated keeled lizard (''Algyroides nigropunctatus''), or Dalmatian algyroides, is a species of lizard in the family Lacertidae. Description The maximum total length (including tail) is which makes it significantly larger than any of ...

Balkan wall lizard ''Podarcis tauricus'', the Balkan wall lizard, is a common lizard in the family Lacertidae native to south eastern Europe and Asia Minor. It is a terrestrial species found in steppe, grassland, olive groves, cultivated land, meadows, rural garde ...

Montpellier snake ''Malpolon monspessulanus'', commonly known as the Montpellier snake, is a species of mildly venomous rear-fanged snake. Geographic range It is very common in Spain, Portugal and Northwest Africa, being also present in the southern Mediterranean ...

and

Balkan whip snake The Balkan whip snake (''Hierophis gemonensis'', formerly known as ''Coluber gemonensis'') is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. It is found in Italy, Greece (including the Greek islands) and most of the Balkan countries (specifically ...

are present in most rocky, and wet natural habitats throughout the island. There are between 122 identified species, including 113

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s, but their actual number is estimated to be higher. Among the insects are 40 are

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

s, 16

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

, 22

heteroptera The Heteroptera are a group of about 40,000 species of insects in the order Hemiptera. They are sometimes called "true bugs", though that name more commonly refers to the Hemiptera as a whole. "Typical bugs" might be used as a more unequivocal al ...

, 20

orthoptera Orthoptera () is an order of insects that comprises the grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets, including closely related insects, such as the bush crickets or katydids and wētā. The order is subdivided into two suborders: Caelifera – grassho ...

, 5 dragonflies and 10

hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order (biology), order of insects, comprising the sawfly, sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are Par ...

References