Cyclades
Islands
: Amorgos, Andros,
Folegandros, Ios,
Kea, Kythnos,
Milos, Mykonos,
Naxos, Paros
and Antiparos, Santorini,
Sifnos, Serifos,
Sikinos, Syros,
Tinos
Northern
Aegean Islands:
Chios, Ikaria,
Limnos, Lesvos,
Samos, Samothraki,
Thassos
Ionian
Islands:
Corfu (Kerkyra), Ithaki,
Kefalonia, Kythera,
Lefkada, Paxos,
Zakynthos
Saronic
Islands:
Aegina, Angistri,
Poros, Hydra,
Salamina, Spetsis
Sporades
Islands:
Alonissos, Skiathos,
Skopelos, Skyros
Dodecanese
Islands:
Astypalia, Halki,
Kalymnos, Karpathos,
Kassos, Kastellorizo,
Kos, Leros,
Nisyros, Patmos,
Rhodes, Symi,
Tilos
Other
Islands:
Crete, Evia,
Cyprus
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Dodecanese Islands - Kalymnos or Kalimnos
Kalymnos is said to smile in winter; this is when her
men are home, after five months during the summer of diving
for sponges off the northern coast of Africa. The residents
of Kalymnos painted their traditionally white houses partly
blue during the Italian occupation prior to and during
World War II to remind the invaders of the blue-and-white
Greek flag; their homes still are blue and white, in stark
contrast to most architecture of the Greek islands. As
you might guess from this, Kalymnians are fiercely independent
and proud of their Greek
ancestry; the Greek dialect spoken here is heavily
punctuated with ancient Greek words.
On the bottom of the channel
between Kalymnos and Telendhos a ruined city lies,
its weed-covered arches and walls still visible in the
water. With Kalymnos’s large population of divers,
you can almost certainly find scuba guides who will help
you explore its scarcely-known walls and foundations;
though archaeologists know the underwater ruins are there,
it is almost untouched by modern man. Even if you choose
not to dive, or are unable to, the crystal waters of the
Mediterranean may be clear enough to let you look through
them down to the site of the old city; sponge divers use
clear-bottomed pails to find sponges that will also help
you find the site of the old city.
If you’re lucky, you’ll have a chance to
watch Kalymnos sponge divers go down. They dive, varyingly,
either with full deep-sea diving gear, with a face mask
and breathing equipment, or without anything stark naked;
some of the naked divers can stay underwater up to five
minutes. From the boats above, you can watch the divers
through crystal-clear water, 60 feet below the surface
or more.
Kalymnos is also known for its
tangerine groves, which scent the air during summer
and spring, and for groves of olive
and fig trees. It was probably originally settled
by Dorians from Epidaurus, and followed much of the same
complex history as the other Greek
isles, caught as they were between the great mainland
powers of Greece and Persia, then Rome and Turkey. In
the 14th century it was occupied by the Knights
of Rhodes, who later became the Knights of Malta.
During World War II, the Kalymnians resisted Italianization,
and many of them fled to Turkey.
Among the archaeological treasures of Kalymnos are the
necropolis of Damos and over a hundred ancient
Greek inscriptions.
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