Milos
Milos
Norsk utgave (Norwegian edition)
Milos is the biggest island of the West Cyklades (161 km2), with app. 5 000 inhabitants. The island is situated far southwest among this group of islands. The port city of Adamas is situated 87 n. miles from Pireaus.
The island differs in a number of ways from the other islands around it. First of all in itīs geology. Milos is a volcanic island, rich in minerals. The island has since old times been known for itīs flint. This is in fact the only greek island that has flint, and therefore one can, by the distribution of the flint, see the wide communication that existed between the islands in real old times. At least 5 different minerals/species of rock are mined on Milos, including cement, lead, sulphur and chalk. All these minerals mark the island as unusual. We have never been on an island with such exciting colors and varied stone. Here you can find rock from really deep red, via ochre and yellow to all white, with all the nuances in between.
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Here are 2 examples of the incredible rock colors some places. This is from the area between the Plathiena Beach and the tiny little fishing village of Fourkovouni. |
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Because of all the mining industry you can see open air mining edges everywhere as well as big piles of slag. The mining industry is the main reason why the roads on the island are fairly good. You can meet big trucks loaded with masses of rock. We would not say that the island is nice and beautiful, but one word is really stuck in our minds: Fascinating!
However the island has got something that is really great, the beaches. There are lots of them. We were told there are between 58 and 72 beaches, depending on who we talked to. Anyway, plenty for a long vacation - and many of them are incredibly nice. And again due to the geology of the island there are lots of beaches on Milos that can rival those of any other Greek islands. And to be honest, it was a photo of one of these beaches that made us go to Milos particularly.
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| A photo of this beach, Sarakinko, definitely tempted us to visit Milos. |
A good example of a wonderful beach with exciting geology is the Paleohori Beach on the South end of the island. Especially the far west part of it. Here is a great beach with a combination of fine sand and incredibly nice pebbles. Inside the beach zone, the mountain rises straight up for 33 to 55 yards. The mountain embraces a beautiful palete of colors with large areas of big yellow fields composed of plain sulphur. The whole beach smells sulphur. Even out in the water the bad smelling gas is bubblig to the surface. Right there the stones are so hot that you can only stand there for about ― minute before you have to move on because your feet get burned, even though you are standing in the water. Despite the svovel smell, this beach clearly became our favourite. A "mineral bath" is healthy to your body, right?
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Paleohori Beach. To reach the most exciting part of the beach you turn right when you get to the beach and go through a narrow passage. Then you will reach the part of the beach where these 2 pictures are taken. |
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Mining is the islandīs main industry and most of the inhabitants are employed or connected in some way to mining. That is why Milos is a "wealthy" island. They just donīt need tourists on this island, anyway not in the same way as on the other islands of the Cyclades. This means that the island has few tourists. Well, this is not quite true, because the island is a very popular vacation and week-end island for the Greeks themselves. So especially on the week-ends alot of people can be on the island. Finding housing is rumoured to be difficult and expensive because the islanders want to present Milos as an exclusive holliday island. The word about the price level is right; both living and eating are expensive. The availability of housing is good, although it can occationally be difficult to find a place to stay. We talked to someone who had been looking for a place to stay for more than 3 hours without finding anything, and then left by a ferry to another island. The Key is knowing where to look for housing. Because here you are not met by eager salesmen when the ferry arrives. You have to find the tourist information, located straight ahead from the ferry dock.
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The tourist information |
Inside you get a leaflet, issued by all who have "rooms to let". They have recently organized a union that produces this leaflet with information about the island, and a list of all accomodations in columns for each village. Every village also has a map containing a specific referance number for all "rooms to let". On the list you then look up the same number to find the owners name and telephone number. If the system works as intended, the tourist information knows who has vacant rooms. If the system does not work, you can either go to one of the many phone boxes and start calling around, or you can walk from "room" to "room" and ask if anything is available. The places are easy to find, because almost everyone who has space has a sign on the house wall reading "Rooms to let" along with the referance number from the map and from the list. An easy and good system that should be applied by more islands. We counted through the list and learned that in the summer of 1998 there were about 170 different places with "rooms" on the island. There is good reason to believe that something must be available. In addition there are hotels and apartments.
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Most "room"owners have signs like this. |
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Klima, famous for its building style and colorful houses. |
Just above Klima there are som catacombs, built and used by Christians from the year 100 B.C. to 560 A.C. Here were found skeletons of about 2 000 people. The catacombs contain 3 main chambers with a number of side entrances. One of the main chambers is open for public. When we were there (July 1998), the catacombs were open from 0800 – 2000 all days except Mondays. Free entrance. We had looked forward to visiting, but were a bit disappointed. These catacombs are supposed to be some of the "greatest" (an unfortunate expression) that exist. They are compared to those in Rome. Since we havenīt seen those in Rome we canīt compare, but as we said, we had expected something more. One can however see that they have a story to tell.
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The catacomb, open to public. |
Generally speaking, Milos is an island with a lot of history. It is said that people have been living here since 5 500 B.C. Near the catacombs are the ruins of an antique Roman village from the year 100 A.C. Here is a well preserved theatre.
It is also here in the same area that the most famous "item" from Milos was found. Of course we are talking about the statue "Venus from Milos". This is the only statue of the godess Afrodite found in Greece. It is kept in a French museum now.
Why donīt more tourists come to Milos? We asked ourselves this often during our stay there. Itīs definitely not because of the island, which surprised and fascinated us very much. Inge (our son) repetedly stated that we had to get back here, that we sure are going back! The island is recommended! To enjoy the best of the island, you have to be active, get around and look. On the next pages we will tell more about the many great places and our experiences on the island.
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| Thanks to Dag Lillethun, Bærum, Norway for his translation into English! | |
| Đ Jan Bergtun, 12. June 1999 | Updated, 09.24.2011 |
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