Samothráki

Samothráki or Samothrace, island, northeastern Greece, in the Aegean Sea, northeast of the island of Límnos. It is 13 km (8 mi) long and 10 km (6 mi) wide. The island is mountainous, rising to 1,600 m (5,250 ft) at Mount Fengári. From that point, according to the Iliad, an epic poem by the Greek poet Homer, Poseidon, the Greek mythological god of the sea, watched the battles around Troy. In ancient times, before the arrival of the Greeks, Samothráki was a center for the religious cult of the Cabiri. The island was occupied by the Ottoman Turks from 1457 until taken by Greece in 1912. Samothráki is also the name of the main town of the island. The famous Hellenistic statue of the Nike (Victory) of Samothrace (Louvre, Paris) was discovered at a nearby shrine in 1863. Area, 178 sq km (69 sq mi); population (1981) 2,871.