The enigmatic Portata, a great Venetian castle and a maze of white washed dwellings clinging to the hillside. This is Naxos an old, old place with a human history of 10,000 years. A magical place of gleaming marble temples, rugged mountains, picturesque villages and glorious beaches. We could’t wait to get exploring.
Around the year 530 B.C. ( 2600 years ago folks that is old! ) when Naxos was at its peak, the tyrant Lygdamis wanted to build the biggest and most beautiful temple in all of Greece. How ever due to war it was never finished. Most of the temple stones were carried away over the years, and many were used in the 1200’s to build the Venetian castle which you can just see on the hill behind the Portata.
The design of the hilly town was like a labyrinth so it would confuse invaders… invaders like pirates! Apparently they had a lot of trouble with pirates! We found it very difficult to get our bearings in the winding streets, it didn’t matter though as around every corner was a beautiful view. We spent many hours wandering the narrow streets.
After being in the hot sun all morning, it was time to cool off. Naxos has many beautiful beaches. We took advice from some trusted Brits who come every year. Plaka, they said, was the ticket, about 20 mins from the Chora (centre of Naxos town) on the bus. It was lovely a straight stretch of sand with parasols, lots of bars and cafes. Cool water and sea breezes it really was the ticket. But our favourite beach was Apollonos right at the northern tip of Naxos. The rocky coast, very dramatic and amazing clear, turquoise water.
We spent a few days touring the interior of the island and went to see this beautiful temple was dedicated to Demeter the goddess of agriculture and was built in the 6th B.C. It stands on an earlier religious site (you can see the circle of stones in the picture, which is an earlier building from around 8th century B.C.) Naxos grows all its own fruit and veg and raises all the meat for the town. Thanks maybe to the goddess who blessed the Island all those thousands of years ago and still does today. In some of the pictures you can see the terracing on the mountain sides. Incredible rock walls an enormous amount of work to farm in this rocky and parched place.
We took a bus ride through the rugged mountains. Spectacular scenery under thunderous clouds rolling in from the sea. My painting fingers were itching – mountains and clouds – my favourite thing!
In the mountains there are many small traditional villages. We went to visit two the first one was Chalki.
And the second Aperanthos
One last place we really wanted to visit was was the The “kouroi” of Naxos they are are the most ancient sculptures in the Greek world.The Kouros of Apollonas, also called the Colossus of Dionysus, is a 10.7 metre tall unfinished statue of light grey marble weighing around 80 tonnes. It is located in an ancient quarry near Apollonas. In the ancient quarry of Apollo there is the oversized kouros (11 meters) of the God Dionysus.
Well dear friends I’m off to pack my ruck sac. Boy Lance and I laugh at the CR**P we brought – holy moly our packs are super heavy and full of stuff we are never going to use! Lance has eight pairs of glasses well you know “just in case” and I have brought so many woolly clothes “just in case.” We are going to have to dump stuff as it is not serving us and is so fricken heavy – live and learn…oh yes you do. xx