Samothráki

Samothráki or Samothrace, island, north-east Greece, in the Aegean Sea, north-east of the island of Limnos. It is about 13 km (8 mi) long and 10 km (6 mi) wide, with an area of about 181 sq km (70 sq mi). Samothráki is also the name of the main town of the island; the total population (1981) is 2,781. The island is mountainous, rising to 1,600 m (5,249 ft) at Mount Fengári. From that point, according to the Iliad, the epic poem of 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 centre for the religious cult of the Cabiri. The island was occupied by the Ottoman Turks from 1457 until taken by Greece in 1912. The famous Hellenistic statue of the Nike (Victory) of Samothrace (Louvre, Paris) was discovered at a nearby shrine in 1863.