Antikythera

Antikythera lies midway between Kythira and Crete on one of the busiest shipping lanes of antiquity, which is why sponge divers working off its coast in 1900 found a first-century BC wreck loaded with bronze and marble statues, glassware, and a corroded lump of geared bronze now known as the Antikythera mechanism, an analogue computer that predicted eclipses and planetary positions and has no known parallel for over a thousand years afterwards. The finds are in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens; the island itself has around twenty permanent residents, two settlements, Potamos and Galaniana, a castle ruin, a lighthouse, and cliffs where Eleonora's falcons breed. Excavation of the wreck site continues periodically, and researchers pass through in summer. There is one guesthouse, limited supplies, and no bank.

What you actually see

• The wreck coast - the cliffs off which the famous cargo was found.
• The harbour at Potamos - the island's tiny settlement and dock.
• The falcon cliffs - breeding grounds for Eleonora's falcons in summer.
• The lighthouse and castle - the two structures that break the empty ridge.

When to go

Late spring and September, when boats run more reliably and the birds are present. Winter crossings are frequently cancelled and the island can be cut off for days.

Honest expectations

This is genuinely remote: a handful of residents, one place to stay, sparse food, no cash machine and ferries that answer to the weather rather than the timetable. There is nothing to see of the mechanism here. Visitors come for the emptiness and the birds.

Nearby

Kythira lies north; Crete is the next landfall to the south.