Samos is a Greek

Greece

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

 island in the eastern 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...

, south of Chios

Chios

Chios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...

, north of Patmos

Patmos

Patmos is a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea. One of the northernmost islands of the Dodecanese complex, it has a population of 2,984 and an area of . The highest point is Profitis Ilias, 269 meters above sea level. The Municipality of Patmos, which includes the offshore islands of Arkoi ,...

 and the Dodecanese

Dodecanese

The Dodecanese are a group of 12 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, of which 26 are inhabited. Τhis island group generally defines the eastern limit of the Sea of Crete. They belong to the Southern Sporades island group...

, and off the coast of Asia Minor

Asia Minor

Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...

, from which it is separated by the 1.6 kilometre (0.994196378639691 mi)-wide Mycale Strait

Mycale Strait

The Mycale Strait is a narrow strait separating the island of Samos from Anatolia . At its narrowest point it is only 1.6 km wide, the narrowest between any Aegean island and Turkey. It is named after the nearby Mount Mycale on the mainland....

. It is also a separate regional unit of the North Aegean

North Aegean

The North Aegean is one of the thirteen regions of Greece. It comprises the islands of the north-eastern Aegean Sea, except for Samothrace, which belongs to the region of East Macedonia and Thrace, and Imbros and Tenedos which belong to Turkey....

 region, and the only municipality

Communities and Municipalities of Greece

For the new municipalities of Greece see the Kallikratis ProgrammeThe municipalities and communities of Greece are one of several levels of government within the organizational structure of that country. Thirteen regions called peripheries form the largest unit of government beneath the State. ...

 of the regional unit.

In ancient times

Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...

 Samos was a particularly rich and powerful city-state

City-state

A city-state is an independent or autonomous entity whose territory consists of a city which is not administered as a part of another local government.-Historical city-states:...

. It is home to Pythagoreion

Pythagoreion

The remains of the Pythagoreion, an ancient fortified port with Greek and Roman monuments and a spectacular tunnel, the Tunnel of Eupalinos or Eupalinian aqueduct, along with the Heraion of Samos were jointly registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992....

 and the Heraion of Samos, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes the Eupalinian aqueduct

Eupalinian aqueduct

The Tunnel of Eupalinos or Eupalinian aqueduct is a tunnel of length in Samos, Greece, built in the 6th century BC to serve as an aqueduct. The tunnel is the second known tunnel in history which was excavated from both ends , and the first with a geometry-based approach in doing so...

, a marvel of ancient engineering.