Kimolos is separated from Milos by a 960-meter channel. It has a perimeter of 14 miles, while its area is about 40 square kilometres. It is a mountainous and arid island, with rare minerals and rocks that create huge paintings of geological layers and varied colours. Its medieval name was Argentiera and its symbol was the trident.

“There is a fluid and indefinable something”, says Odysseas Elytis in “Mikra Epsilon”, which surrounds everything around us and makes us feel the second nature of things.

Every time I approach Kimolos, this quote by Elytis reminds me of the island with its fluid and indeterminate nature.

The ‘places’ in Greece emit a supernatural and at the same time a metaphysical light. Where ‘place’ is of course not only the natural landscape, but the ‘soul’ of places.

Odysseas Elytis managed to transform this supernatural light that emanates from the unique island landscapes of the Aegean into a metaphysical light in the sky of the Aegean, something similar to the light discovered by the pre-Socratic Ionians, which had to do with the l o g o , the soul and the nature of the things that surrounded them.

The Aegean landscape and the Greek light played a huge role in the hypothesis of the poetic pedestal on which the whole theory of the islands rests.

This introduction is necessary in order to enter safely into the landscape of Kimolos, a dazzling landscape that is revealed with its unique poetic style and dimension.

“Eyormo, from your island you are”. This is how Homer calls the port of the Aegean. And we believe that every port of the Cyclades is like that. Here in Kimolos, we want nothing more than to find the poetry of the Aegean, from the surface to the bottom, with the colours, the culture and the reflections of Homer’s words.

Entering Kimolos, we are confronted with a harbour with the verses of Simonides and Archilochus, but also with the ethos of the picturesque Kimolian fisherman who still roams, fishes and rushes around the stairs and the gyro-grills of the island, singing and chanting.

It’s a harbor dotted with solitude, bush and uninterrupted peace. And above it you can make out wide-open shutters, loggias, and lodge-like, staggered and all-bright, flooded with perpetual, mysterious and unbroken light, hugging each other and bathed in light and lime, awash in the scents of marjoram and marigold.

We followed the entire coastline and then we dived into the seas that surround the mainland. And there we saw the colour of the seabed, the stairs that run down to the bottom and their netting. With what joy and pleasure, then, we entered the little harbour of spaciousness and frugality.  In Psathi. Where every house is like a fragment of an old secco, every arbor and roof with a capstone, and every liacock with a celestial exhibition of light and splendour. Where every voice or every long aah or woo looks like a solo of gossiping winds that tell on the rooftops and in the bowers.

So here we are in the fine landscape of Kimolos’ bays and harbours, where the variety and richness of species, colours and glimpses will validate its unmistakable uniqueness; the Greek islands are always a timely celebration of resistance, and their harbours a permanent hymn and ode to storm or serenity, in equal doses.

Yes! We arrived already, sweaty but full of high pleasures, at Chorio, the only settlement of the island that is a jewel and a wealth, in a euphoria of many “souls” that incense, worship and praise it. We hung out in the square and there among the shade and the glow of the lime, we felt the springs of dreams and the depths of the stars. We pondered the before and the after, the now and the hereafter. This island of the Aegean is woven from the dreams of poor fishermen and sour farmers. Visions wrought in the chisel of the winds, disembodied cross-stitches with souls unconcealed, standing upright in the light, sunburnt, standing in front of every bitter sigh of the western winds. Cimolos is but a star born now. A star that nevertheless simmers in the Aegean sky, but it has had the disadvantage of being in the shadow of the famous Milos, which thanks to its Aphrodite overshadows many – if not all – of the islands of the archipelago.

Kimolos is not just a miniature or a satellite of Milos. It is an independent, autonomous and versatile rocky island, with numerous emblematic secrets. Secrets which constitute a huge exclamation point that the sensual travellers and travellers of the Cycladic complex possess, cherish and exploit with their steps. The tour is a constant experimentation guided by the revelation of truth. I think that, when we walk, we must set aside the smug romanticism of the image and the triumph of admiration. The images that surround us and are revealed to us here in wild Chimolos are not fragments of superficial impressions nor mysterious cosmic phenomena that converse with us in terms of sensation and emotion, but profound excavations that put the mystery of truth to research and orgasm.

Here in Kimolos, we find ourselves facing wild rocks, cliffs, cliffs, cliffs and bairos, as if an angry God sowed them.

Kimolos does not derive its name from the Chalk Earth, as most people imagine, (despite the fact that Strabo writes “Kimolos, where the earth is chalk”), since the island is dotted with native volcanic rocks, the top of which is the chalk earth (a kind of clay), but it takes its name from the first settler, Kimolos, ruler of the island in archaic times. Despite this, Theophrastus in his ‘Mineralogy’, Dioscorides and Pliny, as well as Aristophanes, mention chalk earth.

Tourneforte, Olivier, Sonnini and Gouffier also refer to the chalky land, speaking of two types of chalky land, white and grey.

But Kimolos had other names in antiquity that have faded over the years. It was called Echinousa, according to Pliny (because of the many sea urchins it had) and also Echidnousa (because of the many snakes that lived on the island).

The island was first inhabited in Neolithic times, but much later it was settled by Dorians. It is a fact that by the 5th century BC, Kimolos had developed a fairly advanced civilization, and was organized according to the standards of the Athenian hegemony. Regarding its relationship with Milos, the Kimolians came into conflict with their neighbours over the suzerainty of the islands of Polyaea (then Polyvos), Eteria (St George) and Livia (St Eustatius), with the result that the dispute led to the Amphictyonic Congress, which eventually ruled in favour of the views of Kimolos.

In the course of the years that followed, Kimolos surrendered to the Romans in 168 BC when all of the Cyclades came under Roman rule, until it completely declined, especially after 44 BC. From this point onwards, Kimolos is referred to as a place of exile but also as a place for the extraction of chalk and other rocks, of which the land of the island is rich.

Now as far as chalk is concerned, it is historically proven that the island during the Minoan years and until at least the 18th century BC exported chalk, which was a unique type of clay with bleaching and detergent properties.

The island of Kimolos, although relatively small, is burdened with a long and massive history, both natural and aesthetic. We will divide our tribute into five sections related to the inhabitants and the natural environment.

The first section is the Village and the gorgeous Goupa. Second the beaches of Prassa, Ellinika and Aspra Gremia. Third, the routes on the island, climbing to Skiadi and Paliokastro. Fourth, the tour of the island and the tour of Polyaiva. And fifth the people of the island.

But before we delve into the mysterious volcanic rocks of the island and tour the unique murals of its rocky slopes, we will take a short tour of the island with an overflowing imagination that leaves visitors stunned.

Kimolos from morning to night is always elegant, bright, sweet and insubordinate. It is maritime and heavenly and very earthy.  A piece torn by turbulence and depressions, a volcanic magma of betonite and kaolin, of thiophyte and lava, but also of the warm waters gushing from a multitude of source chalky rocks. It is the island nourished by the nectar of the heavens, the ambrosia of the sea and the must of its dry vineyards. Kimolos is the largest of the islands – satellites of Milos, 960 meters away from it. It has an ellipsoidal shape, a perimeter of 14 miles and an area of 40 square kilometres. It is generally a mountainous island consisting of three large and three smaller peaks. Paleokastro (362 m) where there are ancient ruins, Sklavos (325 m) and Prophet Elias (175 m) a little south of the other two.

Isolated mountains are Kedros (177 m), Siderokapsia, where traces of ancient mining operations were found, Petalida and Xaplovouni (100 m). From the tops of these mountains the magnificent view of the islands of Sifnos, Paros, Folegandros, Sikinos and of course Milos is revealed and if the weather is good and the weather is fine, even Crete can be seen.

The three capes that surround it are north of Gerakia, south of Agios Georgios and west of Petalida. Almost all the coasts are whitened by the capstone and are layered with panels of geological colours, usually white, silver and infrared. It is from the silvery (silvery) colour that Kimolos was named in the Middle Ages by the sailors of the West Argentiera (Argentiera).

It is a volcanic island, with several open bays created by siltation and rain currents. The southern coastal side of the island also has the bay of Hellenic or Limni, where the ancient submerged necropolis of Kimolos was found. This city was connected to the islet of Agios Andreas. Beyond it are Bonatsa, Ennia and Aliki.

The main port of Kimolos, Psathi, is the port of the island where all the ships are metamorphosed and is only affected by the sarcophagus. To the left of Psathi, where Goupa is today, there have always been the carved neosikoi, which the locals call “wires”. To the south the island is surrounded by the rocky islets of Agios Efstathios and Agios Georgios.

On the north and east side of the island are also the metallic sulphur springs, just west of the beautiful coast of Prassos.

The tour of the coastline

Starting our acquaintance with the island, we will participate in a sea tour, with a boat that we will be lucky enough to be captained by a sea captain, who defies the weather, the rocks of the coastline, the caves and the antimals. His nickname is Winter. Navigating his boat, which winds its way between scopes, reefs and shoals, Captain Vangelis the Vamvarkaris guides his travellers through the chambers of sea caves and seal’s nests like a sea Pausanias.

We will pass the cape of Anatoli and then Pouli to land in the bay of Monastiria and then Gampas, just before the bend of the Falcon.

Then we will enter Agioklima and catch the sandy beach at Fidaki, with the theiafenia walls. We will pass out of the white-gold rocks of Athinia and finally anchor over a sunken well in the bay of Ellinika next to almost the islet of Agiandrea. In all these coves and caves Captain-Vangelis will enter and anchor for a relaxing dip in the sublime waters of the island.

The next day with the same boat we will attempt the round of Polyaigos (Polyvos is what the Kimolians call it). Here, the imagination cannot capture the exact dimensions of the reality of a rocky island that is now considered by lovers of authentic beauty and the splendor of nature to be the great aspiration of the Cycladic epoch.

Polyaigos, which was named by the Westerners Isola Bruciata or ile Brullee, meaning “burnt island”, from the colour of its mountains, has a perimeter of 9 miles, an altitude of 370 metres, an oval shape and is separated from Kimolos by a fairway (strait) of one mile. It is famous for its red snakes and red rocks.

The imagination soars through a stunning colour scheme of rocky outcrops that jostle each other to render the exotic transparencies of water and rock.

The cliffs all along the south and east coast of the island resemble craters and amphorae with mouths and handles, kneaded by the plow, like rock-blown glass. Their height rises as high as thirty feet, and they represent the triumph of the stone as a work of poetic imagination by the “cosmic” hand of the Creator.

We will make three stops on our sea route. One at the pierced rock of Fanara (a natural arch over a sea cave), the second at the bay of Ammoura, with the beautiful path to the lighthouse of Polyaiva, one of the most spectacular crossings of the faro trek in the Aegean, and the third at the White Punta at Chochliaka Cape, after first crossing the impressive exotic Kaloyers that stand pillared and rocky in the sea with those sharply pointed ends of their peaks.

The tour of Polyaigos will be completed with an additional stop at Panagia Avlaki, after the bypass of Kato and Epano Mersini, with a visit to the small chapel of Panagia.

The next few days of our stay in Kimolos will be devoted to the routes that can be done on the main body of the island.

Route 1: It concerns the walk to Goupa – Kara, which is one and a half kilometers from the beach of Psathi. We take the asphalt road from the coastal settlement and, circling the hillside rock of Psathi from the east, we descend along a concrete path towards the liliputian beach of Goupa. The view of the anarchic coastal settlement, the rocky morphology of the coastline with the white houses, lined up unevenly, create an image that is erratic, but enchanting and impressively original.

We will walk for an hour around and through these open and hidden enclosures, the courtyards and yards of the poor houses, continuing our walk along the coast to the chapel of St. Nicholas.

2nd Route: This is a visit to Prassa, the most beautiful beach of Kimolos. There, before taking a dip in the exciting waters, we will first walk across the bay, heading towards the front of the concrete mines. This walk through the central core of the mining will enrich our impressions with the spectacular rock murals that, whether dug or not, depict a white-fleshed epoch of volcanic rocks. Then we will walk up to the chapel of St. George, in the east of the peninsula, from where we will have an amazing and beautiful view of the beach of Prassia and Prassonisi.  Here the apotheosis of the crystalline shoreline, here the dormitory of golden waves, here the threads sewing geometric circles, forming a surface luminous, percussive and covered with myriad grains of chalky earth on a painting that is never erased by any sponge or passing ethereal wind.

Route 3: It involves a wonderful crossing of the exotic Chalky landscape interspersed with endless dry landscapes with few cultivated fields and a few vineyards. Hills hang from one another, with gabled chapels on their curved tops crowning the greyish hue of the slopes and deep valleys. The route we take will start from Chorio, in the direction of the famous Skiadi, and from there, by a continuous traverse of the intervening hills, we will reach the summit of Paliokastro, where the pillar of the topmost elevation is marked. The return will be towards Mavrospilia. The first part of the route is on a concrete-paved road that starts from the Post Office of the village and climbs towards the extreme quarter of Lebounia. From there, a rough path crosses the ravine and reaches the road coming from the Village in the direction of Selladi. The dirt road is preferable as the old cobblestone road, which was almost destroyed, passed through there. When we reach a characteristic gap we will pass the chapel of Agioi Anargyroi and an ancient cistern carved into the rocks for rainwater, on the left of the road and a little further up the path for Skiadi and Paleokastro. We follow the wonderfully marked path to Skiadi, Manitari, as it is called by the locals, where we will arrive after a twenty-minute walk. This monolith of Kimolos – a trademark of the island – has a wonderful view of both the mountains and the sea.

From there we return to the fork where we take a relatively difficult path that climbs up and down the ridges, the mountainous trunks and the saddles between them. The route lasts about three quarters of an hour, is a little rough as it is interspersed with sparse bushes, toadstools and hills and reaches the root of the Paleokastro. The ascent is only possible from the northern side, as from the other sides it is steep and inaccessible. There was an ancient town here, at the highest point of the island, where even today polygonal walls with an isodome of two enclosures are preserved. At the top are the foundations of an unknown building, probably a tower. Carved cave formations can also be seen, as well as some carved scales. From Paleokastro, where the view is imposing, over the bay of Agioklima, we will turn back and take the path that will bring us to the junction of Skiadio. From there we will descend down a path that is not well marked, in a dry and arid landscape, with many stones and a south-southwest direction that will bring us in another half an hour to the beach of Mavrospilia.

Route 4: Ellinika – Mavrospilia – Aspra Gremia: This route is part of the overall tour of the southern part of the island, starting from the beach of Aliki and crossing the southwestern coastal part of the island, passing by the area of Ellinika, where the ancient city of the island is located. We will walk along the coastal line of the seashore, passing successively by Bonatsa, the beautiful and picturesque Kalamitsi, coming out higher from Fykiada and descending to the ancient Lake or area of Ellinika, where the islet of Agiandrea dominates, on which remains and ruins of the ancient city were found. This city, however, has for the most part been submerged and lies at a depth of four to five meters from the sea surface. Eminent and prominent diving archaeologists have recorded the entire aneurysm of the submerged city and are continuing the work of uncovering other parts of the lost Hellenic polity. Continuing on our way, we will walk yalos yalos to the beautiful beach of Mavrospilia, where we will dwell until the sun sets through the rocky, pierced islets of “Aspra Gremia”, to record a golden page of the beautiful west. And it’s the White Gremia a sweeping white slope of southwestern Kimolos full of scattered monoliths and steep cliffs.

The Village and the Castle

As in ancient times, Kimolos was and still is a monopolis. The settlement of Kastro dates back to the 13th century and is built on a high ridge, a quarter of an hour from the port of Psathi. An old cobblestone road used to run up from Psathi (still in use). The settlement of Kastro is unique, as there are no traces of later settlements. It is divided into two districts, the Old and the New, and its buildings consist mainly of two-storey arched and niche buildings. The castle is square and has been enlarged by adding another square area. There used to be four defensive towers, called ‘veloirs’. The gates of the Castle were and are two, the Upper Gate, as it is called, dated 1646 and the Lower Gate, dated 1650 (the date of the lintel). In the half of the quadrangle is the Church of the Nativity of Christ, built in 1592, as shown by a built-in inscription. The houses are all whitewashed, with cobbled winding streets and small squares, very picturesque, as they create a very attractive ensemble. They consist of upper and lower floors. On this walk around and through the castle we will find, in addition to the impressive Metropolis, six other old churches that have been designated as historical monuments. The most important ones are those of Zoodochos Pigi, Taxiarches, and of course Theotokos, which was inaugurated in 1873. In Chorio there is also an Archaeological Museum with findings from the area of Hellenic.

Among the many people of the island, with whom we came in contact and got to know, we singled out some who are tied to the island and are, so to speak, the link with the life, activities and memory of the place. People whom we thank for everything they have given us with their words and actions.

They are Captain Vangelis Vamvakaris the sea-wolf, Manolis Moustakas the bus driver, an excellent connoisseur of the island’s history, Manolis Mastoras, 90 years old, a silent figure of the countryside who roams around all the countryside with his donkey, Avgoustis Galanos, 92 years old, the minister of all the old (and present) sea communications of Kimolos and all the gyronesias, the also 92 year old Captain Dimitris Sardis from Goupa, Fotis Marinakis the president of the Kimolites with huge activity on the island, Apostolis Bohoris the humorous tavern keeper of the village and Giannis Ventouris the former mayor with also great activity, knowledge of the problems of the place, naval experience and interest in solving the problems of the island.

Kimolos that we met, walked and listened to is ultimately a beautiful and vibrant island of the Cyclades, with wonderful people, unique landscapes, intestines full of lava, sulphur and chalky earth, but most of all it is a wonderful gallery of living and immaterial goods (things and people) for wonderful and unique dreams.

A perpetual chant of light, flitting across the sea with a thousand hallelujahs.

Notes: The only ancient mention of the island is due to Amphius and Athenaeus, who preserved a verse in which reference is made to the Kimolian ischades (*). Few historians and travellers have dealt with the island. Scyllax, Ptolemy, Pliny and Ovid simply mention it, while the great island writer Buondelmondi, who toured 70 Aegean islands, ignored it. Among the more recent travellers, it was visited by Tournefort, Sonnini and Olivier.

In Kimolos, Athena, Artemis and Poseidon were worshipped…