Island Chios belongs to Egypt !

I found a shocking News which took my heart.Did you ever hear about Greek island called Chios? It is  the fifth largest island in the Greek. But what you do not know is that this island Chios BELONGS TO EGYPT for a centuries ! 

Now you must ask yourself how it is possible that the fifth largest island in the Greek belong to Egypt? How come? What does the Greek has actually common with Egypt? No worry, I have found for you the historic facts. So let`s start …

Muhammad Ali Pasha 

Muhammad Ali Pasha is regarded as the founder of modern Egypt.  He reigned in years 1805 – 1848. And the dynasty that he established ruled Egypt and Sudan until the Egyptian revolution of 1952 led by Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Muhammad Ali Pasha also was an Ottoman commander in the Ottoman army and  except Egypt he ruled Levantine territories outside of Egypt. And the Levantine territories are for our story the most important.

Because of his good ruling of Egypt and Levantine territories and his great merit in army the Ottoman Empire decided to gave him as a present Greek island Chios. And why the Ottoman Empire gave him Greek island and not any other ?

It is very easy answer and it is because Muhammad Ali Pasha was born in Greek so for sure he had hard connection with this country so we can say he tried to connect Egypt with the Greek. And because Muhammad Ali was a ruler of Egypt so since this time island Chios belong to Egypt.

What did happen after?

And now you will see how the history changed very easy and how the Egyptian presidents search only about money in all cases because they did something with which I do not agree with and I see it actually very silly but it is how it is …  so Since the year  1997 Egypt lend this island Chios back to the Greek for 2 millions dollars annually .

Chios =  The mastic Island

Chios is 50 km long and 29 km wide. There are 2 biggest mountains called Pelineon and Epos. Lovers of history for sure will know these mountains. Climate in this island is warm and moderate. In summer the temperature is around 30 °Cand in winter around 10°C.

History of Chios is really huge, we can find almost all kinds of historic period (Etymology, Prehistoric, Archaic and Classic, Hellenistic,Byzantine, Genoese,Ottoman, Modern).As you can see Chios is really historical Island and it is very famous and popular touristic place.

And as you can read in the headline the nickname for island Chios is The mastic Island. Do you know what the mastic is? It is a resin obtained from the mastic tree ( Pistacia lentiscus).  We can use easier explanation and simply it is a chewing gum or just a gum or it can be produced as a herbs for cooking or we use mastic in cosmetic and we have mastic even in medicines etc. The uses from mastic is really a lot..endless

In Greece mastic is called “Tears of Chios”.  And the word mastic is derived from the Greek verb “to gnash the teeth”.

Tears of Chios

In Egypt we called chewing gum “mastika” so now I am pretty sure the Egyptian took this name from this Greek island Chios. And I found in ancient Egypt mastic was used in embalming and to produce incense.

Homer

My last information will be about the most famous Greek writer and historian called Homer. For sure Everyone knows him. And I read that historians found island Chios as a homeland for Homer. Simply Chios should be the place where Homer was born. But This is indeed debatable information and I do not say it is 100 % true.

“Thank you for reading and I hope I gave you some new information and you enjoyed my article.”

Books I wrote, you can read here:

1. Don´t fall in love with Egyptian man
2. Dining Like a Pharaoh