Cretaquarium, Public aquarium in Gournes, Crete, Greece
Cretaquarium is a marine research center with public exhibition halls in Hersonissos Municipality, east of Heraklion. The facility houses 61 tanks containing over 2,000 sea creatures from Mediterranean and tropical waters, spread across roughly 1,600 square meters of exhibition space.
The Hellenic Centre for Marine Research opened the facility in 2005 as the first large public aquarium in Greece. Since then, the building has served both educational programs and ongoing research projects about the Mediterranean.
The name Thalassocosmos, "sea world", appears in Greek letters above the entrance, next to a metal octopus sculpture. The exhibits are arranged in five sections, from dimly lit tanks of cave and deep-water life to a tropical section centred on lessepsian migrants, species that entered the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal.
Cretaquarium stands near the town of Gournes, about 15 km east of Heraklion, on the site of the former USAF Iraklion Air Station. The exhibits are arranged in five successive sections, from dimly lit tanks of cave and deep-water life to the tropical section at the end. The viewing tunnel of the Open Sea section is the walkway where visitors pass beneath the water.
Some tanks simulate deep-sea environments with dimmed lighting, letting visitors see nocturnal species under conditions that match their natural habitat. This design allows observation of behaviors usually hidden in brightly lit aquariums.
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