Kasos

Kasos – this is the name of the place I want to present you this week. It’s one of the many islands in the group of the Dodecanese located on the southernmost part of the Aegean Sea.

Kasos is situated just between Karpathos, where its part of the regional unit, and Crete. In 2011 1,084 people were counted living on this island. It has an area of about 70,000 km2 with all small islands around that belong to it. Several of them are uninhabited. The biggest are Armathia and Makronisi.
Kasos can be described rocky and mountainous. The highest level is the Mt. Prionas with a height of 550m. The villagers also get their fresh drinking water from these mountains.
There are five villages on Kasos. Fry has 360 inhabitants and is special because here you can find the new port that connects the people to other islands by boat. Agia Marina is the biggest village with 440 inhabitants and is built on a beautiful hill with a nice view. Arvanitochori which lies on the bottom of the mountain has 170 inhabitants. Poli is the original old village of Kasos. You will find some castle ruins here. The last one is Panagia with only 35 inhabitants and the old port of Emborio.
Kasos is also historically interesting! The first traces of humans go back to the 4th and 3rd millennia before Christ. From this time on the small island grew to be a maritime and mercantile centre as the link between Crete and minor Asia. During the 17th century the Kasians owned about 100 ships and during the time of the Geek Revolution the population reached its maximum with 12,000 inhabitants. 1824 was a very dark year for the islands history: The Egyptians destroyed the villages and left nothing but ruins. Later Kasos got colonized again but changed the governance many times. Since 1947 it’s finally a part of Greece again.
If you want to visit Kasos you can travel by boat from Piraeus/Athens and Crete or with a small airplane from Crete. You can find beautiful nature with many rare wildflowers and birds here and also nice churches. Around 100 are built all over the area. Tourists should definitely visit the monastery of St. Mamma which is a great lookout post over the Egyptian Sea and the monastery of St. George who is the favorite saint of the Kasians. Every September the locals organize an international meeting of lyre and bow instruments for music fans from all over the world. If you are more interested in swimming, you can enjoy the crystal clear water in the southern bay on the beaches St. Konstantinos, Armathia and Helatro.
I hope I could give an impression of the beauty of the Greek islands and make you more interested in new places!