Vilayet of the Archipelago

Vilayet of the Archipelago ولايت جزائر بحر سفيد (Ottoman Turkish) Vilâyet-i Cezair-i Bahr-i Sefid
Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire
1867–1913
Flag Coat of arms
The Vilayet of the Archipelago and the Vilayet of Crete in 1890
Capital	Kale-i Sultaniye, Chios, Rhodes
Area
• 1885[1]	12,850 km2 (4,960 sq mi)
Population
• 1885[1]	325,866
History
• Vilayet Law	1867
• Disestablished	1913
Preceded by Succeeded by Eyalet of the Archipelago Kingdom of Greece Italian Aegean Islands British Cyprus Hüdavendigâr vilayet
area does not include Cyprus

The Vilayet of the Archipelago (Ottoman Turkish: ولايت جزائر بحر سفيد, Vilâyet-i Cezair-i Bahr-i Sefid,^[2][3] "Vilayet of the Islands of the Mediterranean Sea") was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire extant from 1867 to 1912–13, including, at its maximum extent, the Ottoman Aegean islands, Cyprus and the Dardanelles Strait.

At the beginning of the 20th century, it reportedly had an area of 4,963 square miles (12,850 km²), while the preliminary results of the first Ottoman census of 1885 (published in 1908) gave the population as 325,866.^[1] The accuracy of the population figures ranges from "approximate" to "merely conjectural" depending on the region from which they were gathered.^[1]