About Samos

During the ancient times, Samos had been various names, such as Anthemis or Anthemousa, Phyllis or Phyllas, Melamfyllos or Melanthemos, Stefani, Dryousa, and Kyparessia, because of the abundance of flowers, the lush vegetation, abundant acorns and many cypress. Other names that had been given it’s Parthenoarousa, Parthenia, and Imvrassia, because the goddess Hera, patroness of the island, which, according to tradition, was born on the banks of the river Imvrassia of Samos, where they mated with Zeus. The origin of the name Doryssa, that mentioned by Hesychius, is not known. Perhaps these names were used during the period 1666-1181 BC.
Since the history of the island begins, it is reported with the name “Samos”.  It is said that the name “Samos” comes from the Phoenician word “Sami”, which allegedly means “high ground”, a characterization that can be justified by the height of mount Kerkis (1443 m) & the impression that it gave to the sailors when they went past the island.

Samos is the 8th largest Greek island, it is located at the Eastern part of the Aegean Sea, close to the Asia Minor coast, from which it’s separated by a 1,650 m channel.

It belong to “north Aegean” regional and is divided to 1 municipality (Samos) with 35 villages , and 4 municipalities regions, Vathi to north south with 9 villages and 12,400 inhabitants, Karlovasi to the north-west with 10 villages and 9,600 inhabitants, Pythagoreio to the south-east with 11 villages and 9,000 inhabitants and Marathokampos to the south-west with 5 villages and 3,000 inhabitants.

It is a mountainous island, dominated by two mountains, the wild and rocky Kerkis, with a height of 1443 meters and the green and verdant Ampelos (or Karvounis) with a height of 1,160 meters. There are few plains, largest one being the Chora plain, which is located to the south-east of the island.

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During 6th century BC (under the rule of tyrant Polycrates) Samos flourished, it became the center of Ionian civilization, with great technical achievements and monuments, such as the Tunnel of Eupalinus, the temple of Hera, theaters, Polycrates’ palace, the first man-made harbor and his mighty fleet of fast galleys called “Samenas” and others.

At  the end of 15th century CE the island was almost abandoned by its inhabitants, because of the pirate attacks and was re-populated again 100 years later, with the help of the Ottoman admiral Kilitz-Ali who had invited Christian Greeks to move to the island. Since 1832 and until 1912, when the island was united with Greece, Samos was an independent Hegemony and experienced great economic growth, mostly because of its tobacco, tanning and wine industries.

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