Kythnos

Kythnos is dry, low and largely undeveloped, with two main settlements, Chora and Dryopida, and the small spa village of Loutra on the northeast coast, where thermal springs at around fifty degrees have been used since antiquity and feed a small nineteenth-century bathhouse and a stream that runs warm into the sea. The island's signature sight is Kolona, a sandbar several hundred metres long joining the islet of Agios Loukas to the main island, with sea on both sides and a beach on each; it is reached by boat or by a rough track and a walk. Dryopida is the prettiest village, with tiled roofs unusual in the Cyclades and the Katafyki cave beneath it, an old iron mine and natural cavern open in season.

History

Kythnos has one of the oldest known settlements in the Cyclades, a Mesolithic site of 10000-8000 BCE at Maroulas near Loutra, partly eroded into the sea, where excavations in 1996 found intact human skeletons. Finds of the third millennium BCE at Skouries near Mount Profitis Elias, with copper smelting sites and open-air mines studied in 1984-1985, suggest the island supplied metal ore to others in the Bronze Age, and the earliest people known to historians were the Carians; a Hellenistic site at Vryokastro above the bay of Episkopi has yielded houses and a sanctuary (Wikipedia, Kythnos).

The landscape

• Kolona - the double sandbar linking an islet, with beach on both sides.
• The Loutra springs - thermal water in a small bathhouse and on the shore.
• Dryopida - a tile-roofed village with the Katafyki cave below.
• The empty beaches - dozens of coves, many reached only on foot or by boat.

When to go

May, June and September for warm sea and quiet roads; the island fills modestly in August with Greek families. Winter is very quiet and the thermal baths are the main draw.

Practical notes

Kythnos has little in the way of sights and few facilities outside the three settlements. Many beaches need a boat or a rough track. The bathhouse at Loutra is dated and basic rather than a modern spa.

Nearby

Kea lies north on the Lavrio line; Serifos and Sifnos continue south.

Key facts