Bozcaada is Türkiye's third largest island and the only district in the country without a village. It measures 38 square kilometres, its highest point is Göztepe at 192 metres, and it has twelve bays and twelve headlands, with seventeen islets of various sizes around it.
In antiquity it was called Leukophrys; in Greek myth it is Tenedos. Its strategic position meant it was invaded and changed hands many times over the centuries. The excavations in the island's necropolis show that its history goes back to the third millennium BC.
Its known inhabitants follow one another in a long line: Pelasgians, Phoenicians, Athenians, Greeks, Persians, Alexander, Byzantines, Genoese, Venetians and Ottomans. After Mehmed II took İstanbul the island gained importance for the Turks and was annexed to Ottoman territory in 1455; afterwards it was fought over between the Ottomans and the Venetians and control passed back and forth.
The last century was turbulent. After a long Ottoman period the island was occupied by Greece in 1912 during the Balkan Wars, and during the Gallipoli campaign of the First World War it was occupied by British and French forces and used for logistical support. It came to the Republic of Türkiye on 20 September 1923 with the Treaty of Lausanne. The castle on the harbour, the vineyards and the beaches each have their own page below.
