Zakynthos, Greece

Zakynthos is the sixth of the Ionian islands, west of the Coast of Ilias. The other Ionian Islands are Corfu, Paxos, Lefkas, Ithaka and Kefallonia. Homer refers to Zakynthos in The Odyssey as 'woody Zakynthos'.

Today Zakynthos is a very green and fertile island assisted by sensible sustainable irrigation and underground springs.

This area of the Ionian sea has a long history of seismic activity, and forming the island itself and all the smaller islands surrounding Zakynthos. As recently as August 9th 1953 a devastating earthquake hit the island, destroying seventy percent of the buildings on the island. You can still see many abandoned buildings today.

Of the Mediterranean's many geological features, one of the main ones is south east of the island. The Calypso Deep (also called the Pit of Inoussae), is the deepest part of the Mediterranean sea at 5,267 metres (17,280 feet). When the Mediterranean was completely dry this would massively deeper than Death Valley at (only) −86 metres (−282 feet) or the Dead Sea at −418 metres (−1,371 feet)!

One of the highlights of a visit to Zakynthos is sighting the beautiful loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). The turtle is an endangered species and can be found both on Zakynthos and Kefalonia.

The highest point on Zakynthos is Mount Vrachionas at 2487ft (758m). From the top you can see the Greek mainland to the east and Kefalonia to the north. (Kefalonia has a much higher peak - Megas Soros / Mount Ainos at 5,338 ft (1,627 m).

The very famous wrecked ship is a good day trip. Although the wreck appears at first site to have been there for a long time in fact it was run aground in 1980 by its crew after the Greek Navy caught up with them smuggling.