other islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, and parts of Asia Minor and North Africa, guaranteeing fresh produce and a range of recipes and styles that made Leros cuisine unique. In more modern times, the Italian occupation led to Leros adding an Italian style to its cuisine, whereby now many restaurants in Leros provide a unique mix of Lerian, Greek and Italian restaurants, dishes and cooking styles. Some of the more unique offerings of Leros include gavafes, a unique tropical fruit that grows only in Leros, mizithra, a local hard, salty cheese often cured in the sediment of red wine, Kolios Pastos, mackerel cured in sea salt, Lerian Thyme honey, a particularly flavourful honey derived from the thyme-filled hills of Leros, Pougkakia, a Lerian dessert offered at weddings (but commonly available in the many sweets shops in Leros), Patsavouropita (a cake with layers of filo and syrup) and Soumada, a sweet drink made of almonds. History Antiquity Thucydides stressed the special importance of the bays and the harbours of Leros during the Peloponnesian War (431 BC – 404 BC), where Leros supported the democratic Athenians. After the end of the war, Leros came under the sovereignty of the Spartans. The island had a famous sanctuary of the greek goddess Artemis. It then followed the fate of the rest of the Dodecanese Islands during the years of Alexander the Great and his successors, the Roman years and the Byzantine period. After the division of the Roman Empire, Leros was part of the Byzantine Empire. On the island of Farmaco east from Leros, a few miles from Didyma on the Turkish coast, Julius Caesar was held as a hostage by local pirates for forty days. Venetian and Ottoman Era During the Byzantine Age, the island was incorporated into the Theme of Samos. During the thirteenth century, the island was occupied by the Genoese and then by the Venetians. In the year 1309, the Knights of St John seized and fortified Leros. In 1505, the Ottoman Admiral Kemal Reis, with three galleys and seventeen other warships, besieged the castle but could not capture it. The operation was repeated in 1508 with more ships, but again nothing was achieved. Legend has it that then the island was rescued by the only surviving knight, barely 18 years old. He dressed women and children in the armor of the dead defenders, convincing the Ottomans that the garrison