Mount Ida

The duo of legendary Greek singer and laouto player George Xylouris (aka Psarogiorgis) and Australian drummer Jim White, is coming to Xylouris' home island for a mystifying performance in the Ideon Antron cave on Psiloritis Mountain on August 31. Eight years since their last performance on Crete, they are returning to the land that inspired them and where the heart of their music lies.

An urban couple, who left Istanbul with their 7-year-old son and settled in a village in the northwestern province of Balıkesir, has been advised to have a minimum monthly earning of 10,000 Turkish Liras ($557) to get a taste of a village life.

Canadian miner Alamos Gold has said its Netherlands units would file an investment treaty claim exceeding $1 billion against Turkey for "unfair and inequitable treatment" with its gold mining project in Turkey's northwest.

One of two hikers who had been trapped by snow and ice since Wednesday while trekking on Psiloritis Mountain in central Crete was found dead by members of the Special Disaster Unit (EMAK) rescue team on Thursday.

The two young hikers, aged 18 and 20, started their hike on Wednesday morning, state-run news agency ANA-MPA reported.

The archives area of the palace of Zominthos on the plateau of Mount Psiloritis on Crete were discovered at the sprawling site during this year's excavation season, the Ministry of Culture said on Thursday.

Archaeologists working on the small Zominthos plateau in the foothills of Mount Psiloritis on Crete discovered a tablet inscribed in Linear A - a writing system used by the ancient Minoans from around 1800 to 1450 BCE - in what was once an archive of a building complex, during this season's excavations. The tablet was used for accounting purposes.

[Culture Ministry via ANA-MPA]

The ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) spokesperson has refuted reports that gold mining activities which has come under fire were taking place on Mount Ida - or Kaz Mountains - in the northwestern province of Çanakkale, saying they were actually being carried out 40 kilometers from the mountains.

The Minoan palace of Zominthos was a complex with three-story buildings grounded in the rock at 1,200 meters above sea level. As early as 2000 BC, worshippers started placing offerings in clefts in the rock, such as "egg cups" - simple cup-shaped vases with a disc-like base - both painted and plain.

Pithos burials have been unearthed in the ancient city of Antandros, which are believed to have been established in the 10th century on the skirts of the Kaz Mountains (Mount Ida) in the western province of Balıkesir's Edremit district. This type of burial is known by locals as "cubic tombs." 

The seeds of fruits like olive, plum, peach and almond, along with the seeds of some medicinal plants from the skirts of the Mount Ida are crafted into jewelry by village women living in the northwestern province of Balıkesir's Edremit district.