Information about Corfu: General Information about the island of Corfu, Greece, Ionian Islands

Corfu: Information about Corfu

Information about Corfu: General Information about the island of Corfu, Greece, Ionian Islands
	Information about Corfu, Greece. Corfu info guide: general information about tourism in Corfu. Hotels, apartments, restaurants, history, museums, architecture, maps, pictures, info about Ionian Islands and Greek islands	Hotels Corfu Sitemap

Corfu Information: Information about the island of Corfu

The name CORFU is an Italian corruption of Korypho, a Byzantine name derived from the two peaks on which the citadel of the chief town hall is built. The ancient name of CORCYRA appears first in Herodotus who also uses a Semitic name - KERKOUROS meaning a fast Phoenician boat of which
probably the Greek version (KERKYRA) derives its name.

The Ionian Islands take their name from the sea which lies between the tip of Italy and the west coast of Greece. The Ionians in turn took their name from Ion, after the nymph goddess of the sea. These islands are also known as the Eptanisos - The Seven Islands - of which Corfu is the second largest with a length of 40 miles and a width varying between two and a half and eighteen miles. The North East Cape, where you will find the resort town of Kassiopi, is one and a half miles from the Albanian coast. The shape of the island resembles a scythe with a surface area of 588 square miles.

Corfu INFO

Developed by corfunet.com and used in a number of other sites around the internet this interactive map of Corfu is the best map out there. To view this click here.

Geologically speaking, Corfu is an off-shore peak of ranges belonging to the deformed belt of mountains which run through Yugoslavia and Western Greece.

The oldest rocks of the Highlands are the Mesozoic limestone (about 135 million years old) which were crushed against the central core in the Tertiary era (about 75 million years ago) forming marls, silstones, and sandstone areas. The softer deposits have produced some beautiful caves and grottoes of which the best examples are on Paxos, an island south of Corfu.