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Area of island: 406 sq. km/157 sq. mi Chief town: Zákynthos Zákynthos ( Italian: Zante ), one of the Ionian Islands, lies in the Ionian Sea only 16km/10mi off the west coast of the Peloponnese. The western half of the island is occupied by a karstic plateau rising to 758m/2,487ft, the eastern half by a fertile and intensively cultivated alluvial plain with a luxuriant growth of vegetation. View a slideshow of Zakynthos Pictures With its beautiful scenery and good bathing beaches, Zákynthos is a very popular holiday island. The island has been known since the time of Homer by the name it still bears, said to be derived from the wild hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis L.). Settled at an early period by Achaeans and Arcadians, it soon developed into a trading and seafaring town the influence of which extended as far as the Iberian peninsula, where it founded the colony of Zakantha, later known as Saguntum. In 455 B.C. the Athenian admiral Tolmides made the is...

This tiny creature has gotten a fair bit of attention lately because of one simple reason: It’s absolutely crazy-looking. At first glance, it resembles a Pokémon or character from Final Fantasy more closely than a real biological animal. But the Glaucus atlanticus sea slug—commonly known as the blue sea slug or blue dragon—is indeed a genuine species. And if you swim in the right places off of South Africa, Mozambique or Australia, you just might find one floating upside down, riding the surface tension of the water’s surface. The species has a number of specialized adaptations that allow it to engage in a surprisingly aggressive behavior: preying on creatures much bigger than itself. The blue dragon, typically just an inch long, frequently feeds on Portuguese man o’ wars, which have tentacles that average 30 feet. A gas-filled sac in the stomach allows the small slug to float, and a muscular foot structure is used to cling to the surface. Then, if it floats by a man o’ war or other...