Iraklio is the fifth in size city of Greece counting about 140.000 inhabitants and the largest on the island of Crete.

It has acquired many names through time:

Iraklion,in the Post-Minoan and Roman times

Handax, during the 1st Byzantine period

Rabdh El Khandak: (Fortress of the Moat), during the arabic conquest

Megalo Kastro: (Big Castle), throughout the 2nd Byzantine period

Candia: (the white land), during the Venetian conquest

Kadiye, during the Ottoman conquest

Iraklio, from 1821 onwards

Many were also the people who passed from Crete and especially Iraklio:

* The Romans (67 B.C. - 330 A.D.)
* The Byzantines (330 - 824 A.D. and 961 - 1204)
* The Arabs (824 - 961)
* The Venetians (1204 - 1669)
* The Turks (1669 - 1898)
* The Egyptians (1830 - 1840)
* The Germans (1941 - 1945)