Amorgos

Amorgos is essentially a mountain ridge rising from the sea, 126 square kilometres long and narrow, with an almost unbroken cliff wall on its southeastern side and small harbours on the other. The Chora, inland and high, is one of the finest in the Cyclades: white cube houses, thirty-odd churches, windmills on the ridge above and a Venetian castle rock in the middle. Below it, the monastery of Hozoviotissa is built into the cliff face. Walking is the island's speciality, with a network of restored paths linking villages, chapels and beaches; the route from Chora down to Agia Anna and along the coast is the best known. The island became famous in 1988 as the setting of Luc Besson's film The Big Blue, and the wreck of the Olympia lies on the western shore.

History

Burials show that Amorgos was busy in the first period of Cycladic civilisation, 3200 to 2000 BC, with almost a dozen settlements, and it gave its name to types of Cycladic figurines: the Kapsala type of around 2700 B.C., the earliest canonical reclining female with folded arms, and the slenderer Dokathismata type of 2400-2100 BC. In approximately 630 BC the poet Semonides led a Samian colony here, and in Archaic times the island held three independent cities, Arkesine, Minoa and Aigiali, sharing one currency, Arkesine notable for the size and quality of its walls; the island belonged to the Delian League and the Second Athenian League, and the British explorers Theodore and Mabel Bent visited in 1883/4 (Wikipedia, Amorgos).

The landscape

• The Chora - a hilltop white town with windmills and a castle rock.
• Hozoviotissa - the monastery pressed into the cliff below the Chora.
• The walking network - restored stone paths across the island.
• The Olympia wreck - a beached freighter on the western coast.

When to go

May, June, September and October for walking weather and open tavernas; the meltemi blows hard in high summer and can disrupt ferries. Winter is very quiet with reduced boats.

Good to know

Getting there is a long ferry from Athens, and connections between the two ports need planning. Beaches are small and mostly pebble. In August the Chora and the monastery are busy despite the distance.

Nearby

The Small Cyclades, Koufonisia among them, lie west; Naxos is the main ferry hub.

Key facts