Karpathos

Karpathos (Greek: Κάρπαθος), is the second largest of the Greek Dodecanese islands. The island of Karpathos was in both ancient and medieval times closely connected with Rhodes. The Karpathians sided with Sparta in the Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE and lost their independence to Rhodes in 400 BCE. In 42 BCE, the island fell to Rome. After the division of the Roman Empire in 395 CE, the island became part of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. n 1304, Karpathos was given as fief to the Genoese corsairs Andrea and Lodovico Moresco, but in 1306 it fell to Andrea Cornaro, a member of the Venetian Cornaro family. The Cornaro controlled Karpathos until 1538, when it passed into the possession of the Ottoman Turks. The Ottoman rule ended on 12 May 1912, when the Italians occupied the island, together with the whole Dodecanese, during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-12. The island formally joined the Kingdom of Greece on 7 March 1948, together with the other Dodecanese islands. The island Saria was once united with Karpathos, but an earthquake divided them. Saria preserves many important antiquities.