Archipelago

Archipelago (Gk. the chief sea), the term originally applied only to the sea lying between Greece and Asia Minor, but now extended to any other sea resembling it in having a number of islands. The name is also given to the islands themselves. The islands in the Grecian Archipelago are divided into two groups: the Cyclades, containing Delos, Paros, Tenos, Andros, Naxos, Melos, and others, and the Sporades, of which the principal islands are Samos, Lesbos, Patmos, Cos, Lemnos, Rhodes, Chios, Samothrace, and Icaria. Other well-known archipelagoes are the Malayan, the Patagonian, and the Marquesas.