Compléter Croatia Geography-Crete Version en ligne Crete par Nektarios Tsantakis 1 Thera fifth Greek Heraklion volcanic Minoan Mediterranean Linear Crete is the largest and most populous of the islands , 88th - largest island in the world and the - largest island in the Sea , after Sicily , Sardinia , Cyprus , and Corsica . Tthe largest city is . Crete was the centre of Europe's first advanced civilisation , the ( c . 2700 ? 1420 BC ) . This civilization wrote in the undeciphered script known as A . The eruption of may have been the cause of the downfall of the Minoan civilization .