Dodecanese (Δωδεκάνησα), Greece

The Dodecanese (Greek: Δωδεκάνησα, literally “twelve islands”) are a group of 15 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Turkey’s Anatolia, of which 26 are inhabited. This island group generally defines the eastern limit of the Sea of Crete. They belong to the wider Southern Sporades island group.

Dodecanese, Greece

Dodecaneso, Grecia

Rhodes has been the area’s dominant island since antiquity. Of the others, Kos and Patmos are historically the more important; the remaining twelve are Agathonisi, Astypalaia, Chalki, Kalymnos, Karpathos, Kasos, Leipsoi, Leros, Nisyros, Symi, Tilos, and Kastellorizo. Other islands in the chain include Alimia, Arkoi, Farmakonisi, Gyali, Kinaros, Levitha, Marathos, Nimos, Pserimos, Saria, Strongyli, Syrna and Telendos.

Dodekanes, Griechenland

دوديكانيسو ، اليونان

Кратер Стефанос на острове Нисирос (Додеканес, Греция) — Stefanos Crater on Nisyros island (Dodecanese, Greece)

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Додеканесо, Греция

Greek Islet Strongyli Megistis (Greek Στρογγυλή Μεγίστης) — Greek Islet Strongyli Megistis (Greek: Στρογγυλή Μεγίστης)

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On İki Ada, Yunanistan

The name Dōdekanēsos first appears in Byzantine sources in the 8th century, as a naval command under a droungarios, encompassing the southern Aegean Sea, which eventually evolved into the Theme of Samos. However it was not applied to the current island group, but to the twelve Cyclades islands clustered around Delos. The name may indeed be of far earlier date, and modern historians suggest that the 12 islands mentioned by Strabo was the origin of the term. The term remained in use throughout the medieval period and was still used for the Cyclades in both colloquial usage and scholarly Greek-language literature until the 18th century.

Δωδεκάνησο, Ελλάδα

Dodécanèse, Grèce

Τήλος, που ανήκει στα Δωδεκάνησα — Tilos, which is part of the Dodecanese Islands

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דודקנסו, יוון

Griechische Vulkaninsel Gyali im Dodekanes — Volcanic Greek Island Gyali in the Dodecanese

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By 1920, the name had become firmly established for the entire island group, a fact acknowledged by the Italian government when it appointed the islands’ first civilian governor, Count Carlo Senni, as “Viceroy of the Dodecanese”. As the name was associated with Greek irredentism, from 1924 Mussolini’s Fascist regime tried to abolish its use by referring to them as the “Italian Islands of the Aegean”, but this name never acquired any wider currency outside Italian administrative usage. The islands joined Greece in 1947 following as the “Governorate-General of the Dodecanese” (Γενική Διοίκησις Δωδεκανήσου), since 1955 the “Dodecanese Prefecture” (Νομός Δωδεκανήσου).