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 area is Crete, located at the southern edge of the Aegean Sea. The second largest island is Euboea or Evvia, which is separated from the mainland by the 60m-wide Euripus Strait, and is administered as part of the Central Greece region. After the third and fourth largest Greek islands, Lesbos and Rhodes, the rest of the islands are two-thirds of the area of Rhodes, or smaller.

The Aegean Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, located between the Greek peninsula to the west and Turkey to the east. The Aegean is connected through the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, and the Bosporus with the Black Sea, while the island of Crete is considered to be the southern boundary.

The Aegean is studded with numerous large and small islands that are the mountain peaks of Aegeis, the name given to a submerged land mass. The Aegean islands can be divided into seven groups: the Thracian Sea group, the East Aegean group, the Northern Sporades, the Cyclades, the Saronic Islands, the Dodecanese, and Crete.