 Later, Crete fell under Roman rule, and afterwards the Byzantine Empire, Andalusian Arabs, the Venetian Republic, and the Ottoman Empire successively ruled Crete.The Cretan people, who maintained a desire to join the Greek state, achieved independence from the Ottomans in 1898 as the Cretan State and became part of Greece in December 1913.The island is mostly mountainous, and its character is defined by a high mountain range crossing from west to east; it includes Crete's highest point, Mount Ida, and the range of the White Mountains (Lefka Ori) with 30 summits above 2000 metres in altitude and the Samaria Gorge, a World Biosphere Reserve.