Cyclades
The Cyclades are a group of
islands of varying sizes scattered over the deep blue waters of
the Aegean.
Some of them are well-known
both to the public at large and the international 'jet-set', while
others remain little known and scarcely figure on the tourist
scene. Taken as a whole, they make an ideal holiday destination
for the visitors of the most varied tastes.
A fusion of stone, sunlight
and sparkling sea, the Cyclades lie to the east of the Peloponnese
and south-east of the coast of Attica; they stretch as far as
Samos and Ikaria to the east, and are bounded to the south by the
Cretan Sea.
According to the most
likely tradition, they owe they name to the notional circle which
they appear to form around the sacred isle of Delos.
The Cyclades have exercised
a powerful charm since ancient times, even though access to them
then was not particularly easy. This was the birthplace of one of
the Mediterranean 's most important civilizations, one which took
its name from the islands: the Cycladic civilization (3000-1000
BC).
Geologists attribute the
peculiar form which the Cyclades take today to a succession of
geological upheavals - earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, movements
of the earth's crust - which resulted in the submergence of large
chunks of land. Many believe that one such stretch of land was the
lost continent of Atlantis.
The diverse outlines of the
islands as they protrude from the blue waters of the Aegean,
bathed in the dazzling sunlight and embellished with little white
houses, resemble, in the words of the Nobel Prize-winning poet
Odysseas Elytis, "stone horses with rampant manes".
Above all, the people who live here, with their own individual
approach to the world, bring to life the narrow alleyways of the
villages and the pathways of the countryside, the countless tiny
chapels, the windmills, the dovecotes or the wind-bitten hillsides
and are themselves a basic feature of the charm which this
possess.
Yet, in spite of the
characteristics which the islands have in common -sparkling sea,
sun, the landscape and the austere line of the architecture - each
retains its own individual features, which visitors can discover
as they explore them one by one.
The Cycladic islands enjoy
a Mediterranean climate, with an average temperature for the year
of 18-19°C. The winters are mild and the summers - by Greek
standards - cool, thanks to the beneficial effects of the seasonal
winds known as the 'meltemia'.
