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Chios
Khios,
or Chios as most Greek English speakers know the
island, is a
Greek
island in the
Aegean Sea.
The
population is about 52,290 (census of 2001), with an area of
910 km².
The capital is also called
Khíos
or Khora; it is a port and the island's chief town. Other
settlements include
Vrondados,
Volissos,
Kardamylla
and
Oinoussais,
on a small but wealthy island 5 km away. The island is
famous for its scenery and good climate. Its chief export is
mastic
but it also produces
olives,
figs,
and
wine.
History
Khíos was
colonized by
Ionians
but has been occupied by the
Persians,
part of the
Delian League
and the
Byzantine Empire,
before passing through the possession of the
Latin emperors of Constantinople,
the
Genoese,
the
Ottoman Turks.
During the
Turkish occupation, there was a massacre of the islanders
after a rebellion in
1822
(centered in the village of
Messolonghi),
depicted by
Eugène Delacroix
in his famous artwork at The
Louvre.
Khios rejoined the rest of independent Greece after the
First Balkan War
(1912).
The Turkish
massacre of 1822, which annihilated 1/4 of the 30,000
inhabitants of the island, decimated the
Mastichohoria,
the mastic growing villages in the south of the island. It
triggered enormous public outrage in Western Europe, as can
be seen in the art of Delacroix, in the writing of
Lord Byron
and
Victor Hugo,
and in the
Gioacchino Rossini
opera
Le Siège de Corinthe.
Claims to Fame
- The
Korai Library,
in Khios, is one of the most important in Greece,
containing 95,000 volumes.
- Khíos
claims to be the birthplace of
Homer,
Hippocrates
the mathematician, and
Oenopides.
Oenopion,
a legendary king, is said to have brought winemaking to
the island.
- Khíos is home
to one of the biggest ship-owning fraternities in
Greece.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chios
Vacancies in
Chios
Chios01.htm
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