The characteristically agricultural landscape of Crete has many peculiar and extraordinary features. Rackham and Moody explain the formation and ecology of Crete's mountains and coastline, and the contemporary threats to the island's natural beauty.
Chronology; history, pseudo-history and the use of evidence; the environment - making the mountains, weather and water; the inhabitants - wild animals, wild trees and plants, domestic animals and plants, people and settlements; the landscape - place-names, vegetation, vegetation history, terraces, fields and enclosures, boots, mules and roads, shepherding, buildings, sacred landscapes; unusual places - the high mountains, coasts and the sea, islets; the future - conservation and the future.