Recent investigations of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea carried out during the GECO cruise with RV Urania provided a substantial number of new cold-water coral (CWC) records, including branching and solitary scleractinian species. These new sites are located along steep escarpments and on topographic highs along the margins of Crete, Karpathos, and Rhodes. The majority of the corals represent fossil occurrences, predominantly Late Pleistocene assemblages. Our research documents that the Eastern Mediterranean Basin has been colonized by CWC at favorable times during the Last Glacial, in particular during the Younger Dryas. Schizocyathus Wssilis is reported for the Wrst time for the Mediterranean, while the Wnding of Ceratotrochus magnaghii represents the Wrst record for the Eastern Mediterranean. Various coral facies occur on the southerly island slopes of Crete, Karpathos, and Rhodes, including hardgrounds and loose skeletal sediments. Hardgrounds occur on steep topographies between ca. 500 and 1,700 m, and can conveniently be subdivided as (1) Neopycnodonte-Desmophyllum framestone, (2) DesmophyllumCaryophyllia framestone, (3) Madrepora-Lophelia rudstone, (4) Pelagic mudstone and wackestone, and (5) Siliciclasticcarbonate conglomerate and breccia. Unconsolidated skeletal sediments containing corals mainly occur on gentler