GREECE 2008 !!! - Cyclades island - Milos -

Island of the far south-west of
the archipelago of the Cyclades.



Surface : 151 km2.
4 771 inhabitants (as of 2001).
Capital : Plaka.

Milos is a volcanic Greek island in the Sea of Crete, just south of the Aegean Sea.
Formerly known as Melos during the ancient greek civilization.
The greater portion is rugged and hilly, culminating in Mount Profitis Elias 748 m in the west.

Like the rest of the cluster, the island is of volcanic origin, with tuff, trachyte and obsidian among its
ordinary rocks (Bentonite, perlite, pozzolana, etc.).

Obsidian from Melos was a commodity as early as 13000 years ago. The material was transported out
of this island for distances to thousand miles. The position of Melos, between Greece and Crete, and its
possession of obsidian, made it an important centre of early Aegean civilization.
Though the Melians sent a contingent to the Greek fleet at Salamis, it held aloof from the Delian League,
and sought to remain neutral during the Peloponnesian War. But in 415 BC the Athenians launched an
attack to the island and compelled the Melians to surrender, slew all the men capable of bearing arms,
made slaves of the women and children, and introduced 500 Athenian colonists. Thucydides made this
event the occasion of one of the most impressive of the "speeches" in his history. Written like the others
in more complex and difficult Greek than his pellucid narrative, this passage, known as the Melian
Dialogue, is a locus classicus for the contest between raison d'état and ethical action, and is the fulcrum
at which the state of Athens in his history abandoned the noble ideals with which it had entered the war
and began to pursue simply its own self-interest. Lysander restored the island to its Dorian possessors,
but it never recovered its former prosperity.
The island is famous for the statue of Aphrodite, discover in 1820 (now in the Louvre).

Itinerary :

Adamas, Plaka, Firiplaka, Tsigrado, Firiplaka, Adamas, Vani, Sykia, Kleftiko, Firiplaka, Tsigrado, Gerakas
Glaronissia, Sarakiniko, Fourkovouni, Klima, Adamas.

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