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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...