[2][3][4][5] Additionally, it features the only deep water port in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea that is suitable and capable of maintaining the largest aircraft carriers (class "supercarriers").

[6] Souda is a naturally protected harbor on the northwest coast of the island of Crete, founded for the first time during the Ottoman period, in 1872.

During World War II and the Battle of Greece, the harbor was the target of an Italian raid against the Allied navy as part of the Mediterranean Campaign.

After the war, the naval base was founded, around the same period with Greece's entry into the North Atlantic Alliance.

The Naval Base of Souda Bay occupies an area of 500 hectares (1,200 acres), including the old artillery barracks of the Hellenic Army's 5th Infantry Division as well as later land acquisitions.