Mantamados Attractions

The road from Mytilini to Mantamádos runs 38 km/24 mi), with an icon of the Mother of God which is venerated as wonderworking (pilgrimage on November 8), and Sikaminéa (50 km/31 mi), birthplace of the contemporary writer Stratis Mirivillis, and then, following the coast for part of the way (some stretches in poor condition), to Míthimna (63 km/39 mi), also known as Mólyvos, on the site of ancient Methymna. Above this little port is a Gattelusi castle, from which there is a view extending to Asia Minor. As H. G. Buchholz explains in his monograph on Methymna, the first settlement was established here in the third millennium B.C. in the area known as Palaiá Míthimna, to the east; in the latter part of the second millennium it was moved to the present site, and in the first millennium the city developed extensive trading connections, reaching in the Hellenistic period as far afield as Egypt.