Heraklion

Heraklion, largest city, a dímos (municipality), and principal port of the Greek island of Crete and capital of the pereferiakí enótita (regional unit) Heraklion (Irákleio). It lies on the island’s north coast along the Sea of Crete, just northwest of the ancient Minoan capital of Knossos.

The city’s name derives from the ancient Roman port of Heracleum, which likely occupied the same site. As the capital of Saracen Crete in the 9th century ce, it took the Arabic name Khandaq (“Moat”), which was corrupted to Candia by the Venetians, to whom the island was sold in 1204. Most of the extensive system of walls built around the city by the Venetians survives.

In 1669 the city was ceded to the Turks after a siege of more than 20 years. During the long Turkish occupation, which ended in 1897, Candia was known as Megalokastro. The Turks permitted its harbor to silt up, and the port of Chaniá (Khaniá; historically Canea), future capital of Crete, took over Megalokastro’s former commercial preeminence. Turkish rule ended after an insurrection (1897) by the Greek population, demanding union with Greece. The city was part of the international protectorate of Crete (1897–1913) and then became part of Greece. During the 1941 German airborne invasion of Crete in World War II, the city suffered heavy damage from bombing.

After the war the city gained considerable commercial prominence, with a new harbor with moles, an airport, and several hotels to serve the tourist trade. Among the port’s principal exports are grapes, olives and olive oil, wine, carobs, citrus, almonds, and vegetables. Numerous earthquakes—notably in 1664, 1856, and 1926—have taken their toll of the city’s buildings and monuments, including many fine churches and mosques. A modern museum contains one on the finest collections of Minoan antiquities in Greece. Pop. (2001) city, 135,761; mun., 163,115; (2011) city, 140,730; mun., 173,993; regional unit, 305,490.