One of Dodecanese which Iacks neither physical allure nor historical eminence. It has preserved its immemorial name down through the centuries and carries it today with pride. Foreigh attempts to change it to "Piscopi" did not find the required response the island's people and so failed.

Its mass rises up between Rhodes and Kos, roughly in the middle between these two islands. Round about and closer by it is in the company of Nisiro (NW), Halki (SE) and Simi (NE). Its north stretches the Asia Minor Knidos (Kavo-Krios). Further along to its west is Astipalia and to the south it is watched over by Karpathos and beyond this Kassos.

Mountainous for nearly its whole area (approximately 63 square km) its only significant flat region is the plain of Megalo Horio (covering roughly 1/10 of the island's surface area) whose slopes and valleys were once cultivated its inhabitants occupied chiefly in a traditional agricultural economy, whose basic charecteristic was Iarge households that owed their existence to the indivisibility of the estates, as required by the Iocal custom of primogeniture.

The aspect of its mountains (the highest of which, Profiti Ilia, rises 654 m in the western part of the island), bare and rugged, with awe-inspiring precipices, soar upwards at their peaks or plunge downwards into the sea, alternate with Iandscapes radiating tranquillity and calm.

The picturesque beaches of Livadion, Eristou, Plaka, Skafi, Lethron of St. Antonis its ravines and gorges with their water sources and the cold headsprings; and even in the remote parts of the island at Skafi, Vathia Pigi, Agio Pantaleimona, Potamo, at Despoti water. the verdant plain of Megalou Horio, aIl ginu a their own distinctive picture of the island's nature.

Its climate is dry and salubrius. The relatively high summer temperatures are alleviated by northerly breezes that cool the island. In winter though, whenever they blow, they bring to the affected areas somewhat colder weather from the mountains of Asia Minor opposite. The first inhabitants, that Ieft traces from their habitation of the island, are thought to belong to the stone age.

Somehow their Iives had become intertwined with that of the elephants that were cut off there and in time became pygmies adapting to the Iimited diet that the place offered. Today we find the bones of these aggreeable proboscians in the Harkadio caverns beside the Missaria spring towards the frontier between Megalo Horio and Mikro Horio, where their existence came fuil circle about 4,500 to 3,500 years ago, according to the calculations of the experts.