Syrna or Sirna is a small island about 4 km² in area to the south-east of Astypalaia

Astypalaia

Astypalaia , called in Italian Stampalia and in Ottoman Turkish İstanbulya , is a Greek island with 1,238 residents . It belongs to the Dodecanese, an island group of twelve major islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea. The island is 18 km. long, 13 km. wide at the most, and covers an...

 in the Dodecanese

Dodecanese

The Dodecanese are a group of 12 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, of which 26 are inhabited. Τhis island group generally defines the eastern limit of the Sea of Crete. They belong to the Southern Sporades island group...

 group of Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 islands near the south-west coast of Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

. It is mostly covered with juniper

Juniper

Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on taxonomic viewpoint, there are between 50-67 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa in the Old World, and to the...

 and garrigue

Garrigue

Garrigue or phrygana is a type of low, soft-leaved scrubland ecoregion and plant community in the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. It is found on limestone soils around the Mediterranean Basin, generally near the seacoast, where the climate is ameliorated, but where annual summer...

 scrub. The few inhabitants raise stock, catch fish and practice arable agriculture. The island is important for migrant and breeding seabirds and raptors

Bird of prey

Birds of prey are birds that hunt for food primarily on the wing, using their keen senses, especially vision. They are defined as birds that primarily hunt vertebrates, including other birds. Their talons and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh....

, including Cory's Shearwater

Cory's Shearwater

The Cory's Shearwater is a large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae.This species breeds on islands and cliffs in the Mediterranean, with the odd outpost on the Atlantic coast of Iberia. The nest is on open ground or among rocks or less often in a burrow where one white egg is laid,...

, Yelkouan Shearwater

Yelkouan Shearwater

The Yelkouan Shearwater, Levantine Shearwater or Mediterranean Shearwater is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae.-Description and identification:...

 and Eleonora's Falcon

Eleonora's Falcon

Eleonora's Falcon is a medium-sized falcon. It belongs to the hobby group, a rather close-knit number of similar falcons often considered a subgenus Hypotriorchis. The Sooty Falcon is sometimes considered its closest relative, but while they certainly belong to the same lineage, they do not seem...

.

A shipwreck of the late Roman period (2^nd century CE) was found using sonar technology near the island by the Hellenic Centre of Marine Research in 2000.

On 8th December 1946, the ship Athina Rafiah carrying Jewish immigrants to Palestine was wrecked in the Agiou Soassin Bay, on the south coast of Syrna, and more than seven hundred survivors came ashore on the island. The British minesweeper HMS Providence

HMS Providence (J325)

HMS Providence was an of the Royal Navy. Providence was ordered as in 1942, and laid down at the Toronto yards of Redfern Construction Ltd on 17 July 1943. She was renamed Providence in June 1943, and was launched on 27 October 1943. Her conversion to a minesweeper was completed on 15 May 1944...

, working with HMS Chevron, HHMS Themistocles and HHMS Aegean managed to rescue the survivors.