ANTIKYTHERA ISLAND

Antikythera or Anticythera is a Greek island lying on the edge of the Aegean Sea, between Crete and Peloponnese. Between the 4th and 1st centuries BC, it was used as a base by a group of Cilician pirates until their destruction by Pompey the Great. Their fort can still be seen atop a cliff to the northeast of the island. The archaeology of the island has been thoroughly surveyed and the data made openly available for further study. Antikythera is most famous for being the location of the 1900 discovery of the Antikythera wreck from which the Antikythera Ephebe and Antikythera Mechanism were recovered. The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient mechanical calculator (sometimes described as the first mechanical computer) designed to calculate astronomical positions which has been dated to about 205 BC . Technological artifacts of similar complexity did not appear until a thousand years later. The artefact was recovered probably in July 1901 from the Antikythera shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera. All known fragments of the Antikythera mechanism are kept at the National Archaeological Museum, in Athens, along with a number of artistic reconstructions of how the mechanism may have looked. Fauna Antikythera is a very important stop-over site for migratory birds during their seasonal movements, due to its geographical position and certain features (a longitudinal island, with a north-south direction and very low human impact). Furthermore, the island hosts the largest breeding colony of Eleonora's falcon (Falco eleonorae) in the world. The importance of Antikythira for studying bird migration led to the creation of Antikythera Bird Observatory (A.B.O) by the Hellenic Ornithological Society.