Skyros

Chief place: Skyros (Khóra)

Skyros, the largest and most easterly of the Northern Sporades, is a rugged island, partly covered by a sparse growth of trees, with a much indented coastline. It is divided into two distinct parts by a strip of sandy low-lying land between Kalamítsa Bay on the west and Akhílli Bay on the east. The southeastern half of the island is occupied by the steep and arid massif of Mt Kókhilas (814m/2,671ft). In this area are the quarries of the coarse-grained variegated marble which was much prized in Roman times.

The northwestern half, rising to 403m/1,322ft in Mt Ólympos, is a region of gentler contours, with more water and a more fertile soil. Here are the Mármara quarries, which have been worked from antiquity into modern times. The coasts of the island are steep and inhospitable, but there are beautiful sandy bays at the foot of the cliffs.

In recent years the traditional terraced agriculture, practiced since ancient times, has been giving place to the rearing of goats. The small pony-like horses which used to live wild on the island, particularly in the barren southeast, are now much reduced in numbers. The island's main sources of revenue, in addition to farming, are a limited tourist trade and the sale of its high-quality craft goods (embroidery, carved furniture, pottery, copperware).

According to legend Thetis disguised her son Achilles as a girl on Skyros in an attempt to prevent him from fighting in the Trojan War. Traces of Neolithic occupation (fifth millennium B.C.) have been found northeast of the Venetian castle. In the second millennium B.C. Carian and Pelasgian farmers and seafarers settled on the island, which then became known as Pelasgia. In the first millennium B.C. they were displaced by Dolopians, a Dorian people, who made the island, now called Dolopia, a base for plundering raids in the Aegean. In 469 B.C. Athens drove out the pirates and settled farmers from Attica on the land. In Roman times the islanders achieved a modest degree of prosperity through the export of their much sought-after marble, but their remote island remained of no political importance. Skyros was reunited with Greece after 1821.

Flights from Athens several times weekly (50minutes).

Regular boat service from and to Kymi (Euboea), four times weekly (two hours); from and to Vólos, twice weekly (12 hours).