Heraklion

Heraklion is the capital and largest city of Crete, sitting roughly midway along the island's northern coast. With a municipal population of 179,302 at the 2021 census (and around 211,000 across its wider urban area), it is Greece's fourth-largest city and the biggest in the Greek islands. The city grew up beside the Bronze Age palace of Knossos, often described as one of Europe's oldest urban centres, and its long history runs through Roman, Byzantine, Venetian, and Ottoman rule.

Under the Venetians the city was known as Candia and enclosed within massive fortifications, parts of which still stand along the waterfront today, including the harbour-guarding Koules Fortress. Those walls were tested during the Ottoman siege of 1648–1669, one of the longest sieges in history, after which Heraklion remained under Ottoman control until Crete's union with Greece in the early twentieth century; it was reinstated as the island's capital in 1971.

Today Heraklion's harbour is one of the busiest in the Greek islands, handling ferries to Santorini, Rhodes, and Mykonos alongside a steady flow of cruising yachts. Its combination of easy provisioning, Venetian architecture, and proximity to Knossos means many gulet cruises in Greece call in here before continuing on to quieter anchorages along the coast.