A History of CreteFor thousands of years, Crete has been of paramount strategic importance, thanks to its location close to the junction of three continents and the heart of the eastern Mediterranean. Its perhaps not surprising, therefore, that when they ruled Crete, the Greeks called it Megalnisos or the Great Island. Yet the island has been ruled for much of its history by foreign invadersincluding Mycenaeans, Dorians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Venetians, Ottoman