Municipalities: 6, Communes: 2
Population: 23000 inhabitants
Surface area: 356 sq. km
Coastline length: 117km.
Climate: Mild, Mediterranean
Tallest peak: Stavrota, 182 m
Lefkada owes its name to its southernmost cape, Lelkata, which in ancient
times was known by the name Lefkas petra (white rock) or Lefkas akra (white
tip). Legend has it that the poetess Sappho gave an end to her life falling
from these rocks for Phaon.
The first traces of life in Lefkada date to the Paleolithic period. The
German archaeologist Dorpfeld, Henry Schliemannís assistant in the digs of
Troy and Mycenae, was the one to support the theory that Lefkada is Homeric
Ithaca. During his excavations in Nidri, he unearthed significant finds from
the Neolithic period up to the Bronze Age.
Lefkada, in the 7th century BC, was a Corinthian colony. It participated in
the naval battle of Salamina, the battle of Plataea, and the Peloponnesian
In 338 BC, the island was conquered by Philip of Macedonia and in 197 BC by
In 1204, Lefkada was incorporated into the Despotate of Epirus. In 1331, it
was conquered by the Anjou family. In 1362, the island came under the rule
of the Tocco family and in 1479 it was conquered by the Ottomans. In 1684,
it came once again under Venetian rule.
From 1797, the island came under the consecutive rule of the French, the
Russians and the British until 1864, when Lefkada together with the other
lonian Islands was united with Greece.
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