Photographs by Lisa Ventre

Roaring crowds, loud rock music and the shrill whistles of night club managers luring young customers fill the night air at the port of Hersonissos.

Tourism has jumped 50 percent in 10 years, threatening to alter irrevocably the unique character of this Mediterranean island.

Dancing in the village of Old Hersonissos attracts hoards of tourists each Monday evening.

Edging his way past the traffic that jams the main strip in Hersonissos, University of Cincinnati professor of planning Michael Romanos observes travel patterns.

Graduate student Elizabeth Wolfe of UC studies an endangered wetland on the island.

All across Crete, landfills are burning as arsonists attempt to get rid of solid waste by burning it.

UC biologist Frank Wray picks through some of the garbage discarded along the road near the Hersonissos landfill.

The caretaker of a Greek Orthodox Church sits quietly flipping his worry beads and staring at the clutter of buildings brought by the tourist boom. The church is pictured below.

A pickup truck is used for a produce stand at the Port of Hersonissos.

At Knossos, the capital of Europe's oldest-known civilization, substantial reconstruction has been done to help tourists visualize the ancient world. Elsewhere in Crete, the ancient ruins often sit unattended or unlabeled.

Its stunning beaches help make Crete the most popular destination in Greece. But the flood of tourism is eroding the 150-mile island's ancient culture, a proud society celebrated in colorful frescoes like this one.

A resident of Lassithi Plateau works in the fields of her farm, irrigating the crops with water from an underground well.

One of the sightseers to Lassithi Plateau ventures to the edge of a windmill ruin to snap a photo of the spectacular valley below.

A windmill on the Lassithi Plateau, Crete.

The serenity of village life, as in this scene in the village of Gonies, stands in stark contrast to the congestion of coastal seafront areas, which are often jammed with tourists.