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name = Chios|
name_local = Νομός Χίου|
image_map = GreeceChios.png|
periph = North Aegean |
capital = Chios |
population = 53,817 |
population_as_of = 2005|
pop_rank = 45th|
pop_dens = 59.5|
popdens_rank = 20th|
area = 904|
area_rank = 48th|
postal_code = 82x xx|
area_code = 227x0|
licence = ΧΙ|
provinces = |
municip = 10|
commun = |
ISO = GR-85|
website = www.chios.gr |
}}
Chios (''Χίος'' in Greek ); alternative transliterations ''Khios'' and ''Hios'', see also List Of Traditional Greek Place Names ) is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea .

The population is about 52,290 (census of 2001), with an area of 904 Km&2 . The capital is also called Chios or Chora; it is a port and the island's chief town. The island is famous for its scenery and good climate. Its chief export is Mastic but it also produces Olive s, Fig s, and Wine .


History

Chios was colonized by Ionia ns but has been occupied by the Persia ns, part of the Delian League and the Byzantine Empire , before passing through the possession of the Latin Emperors Of Constantinople , the Genoese (who called the island ''Scio''), and the Ottoman Turks (who called it '''''Sakız''''').

During the Turkish occupation, there was a Massacre Of The Islanders after a rebellion in 1822 , depicted by Eugène Delacroix in his famous artwork at The Louvre . Chios rejoined the rest of independent Greece after the First Balkan War ( 1912 ).

The Turkish massacre of 1822, which annihilated 5/6 of the 120,000 Greek 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 .


Claims to fame

  • Nea Moni is a monastery with fine Fresco es from Constantine IX 's reign and a World Heritage Site . {Link without Title}

  • of Chios, where 100.000 Chians were slaughtered by the Turks . The costumes and the scenery are entirely authentic. This and the works of Lord Byron did much to draw the attention of mainland Europe to the catastrophe that had taken place on Chios (1824, oil on canvas, 419 x 354 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris]]

  • Chios 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.


  • Chios is home to one of the biggest ship-owning fraternities in Greece, with such shipping families as Livanos , Chandris , Los , Lemos, Pachos, Pateras, Fafalios, Frangos, and Xylas hailing from the island.



  • Some claim Chios is Christopher Columbus 's birthplace. Columbus said he was from Genoa , but he never claimed he was from the city of Genoa itself. Chios was a Genoese possession at the time of Columbus birth, and 'Columbus' is a common surname on Chios . Furthermore Columbus appears to have known Chios very well, since he often made references to it in his journals.

  • Chios is also the birthplace of some well known poets of modern times as Giorgos Dilvois, Nikos Gialouris, Dimitris Varos and Matheos Moundes.

  • The Korai Library , in Chios, is one of the most important in Greece, containing 95,000 volumes.

  • Chios Museum Of Byzantine And Post-Byzantine Art , Website

  • Chios Archaeological Museum , Website

  • The town of Vrodrandos is home to a unique Easter celebration, where competing teams of locals gather at the town's two (rival) churches to fire tens of thousands of homemade rockets at the other church's bell tower while the Easter service is going on inside the churches, in what has become known as Rouketopolemos ("the Easter church war").




Chios in popular culture


  • The final level of the Monolith computer game ''No One Lives Forever'', "A spy in harms way" takes place on the island of Khios



Climate


Its climate is mainly Mediterranean. Winters are rarely founded in higher elevations.