The island of Crete resides at the crossroads of the eastern Mediterranean. Its long and vivid history has seen the land occupied by a myriad of ancient Empires – Minoan, Greek, Roman, Arab and Byzantium. More recently Crete was ruled for 700 years by two other great empires, the Venetian Empire and the Ottoman This half hour program sees journalist Ian Cross exploring the traces of 450 years of Venetian rule, beginning in the 13th century, when Crete became its main colony due the strategic position linking vital sea trading routes. Claimed by the Ottomans in the 1669 after one of longest sieges in military history, and despite many rebellions by Christian Cretans, it was to remain part of the Ottoman Empire, until the very end of the 19th century.