Lemnos Island (Myrina, Greece)

Lemnos Island (aka Limnos) is located in the northern Aegean Sea and is part of Greece's North Aegean region. Myrina is the island's main port and principal town with population around 6,000. The island has total area approx 477 km2 (184 mi2), ranking it Greece's 8th-largest. Lemnos Island (Myrina) is connected by regularly scheduled daily ferries departing from Athens (Piraeus), Lavrion, Kavala, Thessaloniki.

Lemnos Island is mostly flat and has over 30 sand beaches. Its west, and especially northwest part, is mountainous, with highest elevation (Mt Vigla) 470 m. Island's main towns are Myrina (on the western coast) and Moudros (in the large bay on the south-central coast), plus around 30 villages. This island province also includes Agios Efstratios island (to southwest) featuring great sand beaches. On Lemnos is also one Europe's all 16 deserts.

After Red Army's victory in the Russian Civil War (1917-1922), many Kuban Cossacks fled Russia to avoid Bolsheviks' persecution. Among the evacuation points was Lemnos, where around 18,000 cossacks arrived by ships. Sadly, many of them soon died of diseases and starvation, the rest left the island after a year.

Lemnos serves as inspiration for the fictional island nation "Altis" in 2013 PC video game ArmA 3 created by Czech developers Bohemia Interactive. The layout of the isle's roads, settlements and landscape closely resembles that of its real counterpart and several of city's landmarks, like the theatre at Hephaistia, the fortress at Myrina, and the windmills close to Kontias, are recreated in the computer game.

Lemnos Island cruise terminal