Walking on Naxos & Small Cyclades - 36 walks

Description

This book describes the most beautiful old hiking trails. With detailed maps, GPS data and route photos of open points for better orientation. And many interesting facts worth knowing about the islands of Dionysos.

As soon as you enter the harbour, you can feel the enormous cultural diversity of the island. On the left you look up at the enormous portal of a classical temple; on the right you glide past a small Byzantine chapel and, high above the interwoven Cycladic city, a Venetian kástro from the Middle Ages. The city, which is 5,000 years old, is one of the oldest inhabited places in the world.

As you penetrate further into the island, you will be surprised by the diversity of the fertile landscapes. A huge rugged mountain massif - consisting of granite, gneiss and marble with three peaks reaching a height of almost 1000 meters - forms the backdrop to the green heart of the island, the Tragéa plains, covered with olive groves and ancient oaks. Further west it stretches across vast farmland until it meets an endless landscape of coastal dunes. Connoisseurs of small bays can find beautiful spots along the rocky east coast.

However, it is not only nature that surprises with its enormous abundance. People also left behind excellent buildings during their long occupation of the island. Except in the lively port city on the Mediterranean Sea, for safety reasons they tend to live in compact mountain villages, which even today can make us follow the traces of ancient Greece. In addition to the whitewashed cube houses, there are also a large number of castle-like homes from the Venetian nobility of the Middle Ages, as well as fortress-like Orthodox and even Catholic monasteries. Art lovers will find not only the remains of classical temple complexes, but also monumental statues worked on by artists and left in old quarries. The Byzantine chapels from a later period house Early medieval frescoes. Many finds from the many excavations on Naxos can be admired in the local museums.

For many visitors, Náxos is the most beautiful island of the Cyclades, not least because mass tourism has been spared. The pleasantly relaxed hospitality offered here will be remembered for a long time. Even the gods of the Greek Pantheon felt extremely comfortable here.