Cunda Island, also called Alibey Island, ' onMouseout='HidePop("26189")' href="/topics/Greek_language">Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

: Εκατόνησα Hekatonisa or Μοσχονήσι/Moshonisi) is a small island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 in the northwestern Aegean Sea

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

 off the coast of Ayvalık

Ayvalik

Ayvalık is a seaside town on the northwestern Aegean coast of Turkey. It is a district of the Balıkesir Province.It was alternatively called by the town's formerly indigenous Greek population, although the use of the name Ayvalık was widespread for centuries among both the Turks and the Greeks...

, part of Balıkesir Province

Balikesir Province

Balıkesir Province is a province in midwestern Turkey, having coastlines on both the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean. Its adjacent provinces are Çanakkale to the west, İzmir to the southwest, Manisa to the south, Kütahya to the southeast, and Bursa to the east. The provincial capital is Balıkesir City...

 of Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

. With an area of 23 km², it is by far the largest island in the Ayvalık Islands

Ayvalik Islands

Ayvalık Islands are the group of islands around Ayvalık district of Turkey in Balıkesir Province in the Northeastern Aegean Sea. There are 22 islands and numerous rocks in the group, with Cunda Island, now a peninsula, being the largest. People live only on Cunda and Lale Islands. Cunda and Lale...

 group. It is located 16 km east of Lesbos

Lesbos Island

Lesbos is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of with 320 kilometres of coastline, making it the third largest Greek island. It is separated from Turkey by the narrow Mytilini Strait....

, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

. The population numbered about 5,000 in 2000.

Cunda is linked to Ayvalık on the mainland by a causeway. The island has a typical resort town, Alibey, and a bus and ferry link to Ayvalık.

The island’s former Greek population was expelled in the 1923 population exchange between Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 and Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 and was replaced by Muslims from Crete, Cretan Turks

Cretan Turks

The Cretan Turks, Turco-Cretans , or Cretan Muslims were the Muslim inhabitants of Crete and now their descendants, who settled principally in Turkey, the Levant, and Egypt as well as in the larger Turkish diaspora.After the Ottoman conquest of Crete...

. The main landmark of Alibey village remains the large former Greek Orthodox cathedral, now abandoned and dilapidated.
Poroselene bay in the north of the island is probably the island’s major “sight.” In antiquity, it was the home of a dolphin who saved a drowning boy, mentioned by Pausanias

Pausanias (geographer)

Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...

.

In 2007 after a two-year-work, all 551 buildings in Cunda Island were inspected and registered by Turkish Science Academy and Yıldız Technical University

Yildiz Technical University

Yildiz Technical University is a technical university dedicated to engineering sciences and is one of the most prominent educational institutions in Istanbul, Turkey. The central campus lies within the Beşiktaş district.-History:Yildiz Technical University has a distinguished history which began...

 Faculty of Architecture within the "Turkey Culture Inventory Project".

See also

• List of islands of Turkey
• Aegean Islands
  Aegean Islands
  The Aegean Islands are the group of islands in the Aegean Sea, with mainland Greece to the west and north and Turkey to the east; the island of Crete delimits the sea to the south, those of Rhodes, Karpathos and Kasos to the southeast...
  
  
• Cunda Adası