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Milos Island
Milos is the island in the southwest corner of the Cydades that rises welcomingly out of the sea between Crete and Athens.
Its wide, deep bay has always sheltered ships from strong winds and offered refuge and rest to travellers, seafarers and all those driven to its shores.
Milos, as you will discover, has its own special charm due to the rare morphology of its terrain and its mineral wealth.
Spectacular rock formations with different textures and unusual colours, from the purest white to black and from golden yellow to deep red, combine to form marvellous multicoloured images and landscapes that have been painstakingly fashioned by nature over the centuries.
Here the earth in its tury has thrust up a mixture of volcanic matter to give an aesthetically unique result. On Milos the bowels of the earth seem to be linked to the surface through vents that have created hot springs at various points.
Here the visitor stands in awe before the divine inspiration that went into creating places such as Sarakiniko, Kleftiko or the Glaronissia, which induce a sense of wonder at the visual feast of forms and colours fused together in dream like combinations.
The sea too, the azure Aegean Sea, has left its mark on the landscape. It has sculpted the coastline into countless indentations and inlets, mostly covered by fine white sand, that the visitor to Milos will find it difficult to resist.
On the south coast of the island particularly, the endless motion of the waves has created caves small and large that once hid pirates and buried treasure, local independence lighters and members of the resistance during the Great Wars.
The crystalline waters, which are sometimes azure blue and sometimes emerald green, hold out the promise of cairn and serenity.
The island is mentioned by many ancient miters, who give it different names, such as Vivlis, Gorgis, Mimallis, Akitos, Zefiria. But the most commonly used name was Milos.
The ancient myth cites the first settler of the island as being called Milos. I
t is said that a young man of this name left Dilos secretly and went to Cypros. There he met the family of the king Kinyras and became initially the bosom friend of the king's son Adonis, and later a relation, having mrried his daughter Pelia.
The link between the two men, their friendship and communication was not dissolved even by the death of Adonis. When Milos heard of the death of his friend, he hanged himself from a tree that became known as Milia (apple tree).
Aphrodite, the goddess of love, so moved by the fact and by the unexpected death of the two young men, transformed Milos into an apple. At the same time, she sent his son, who was also called Milos, to the Aegean in his turn to settle the island of Milos.
Plaka, the present capital of Milos, was Sounded in about 1800 when the earlier hilltop settlement ot Kastro had outgrown the available space and houses had already spread down to the foot of fhe hill.
The new site was called Plaka because the ground on which the first houses were built was flat Later it spread up the sides of the highest hill in the area, until it was eventually almost joined to the villages of Plakes, Triovassalos, Pera Trio-vassalos and Tripiti.
Today Plaka can be seen from many parts of the island and the sea. In Plaka, traditional architecture dominates, with whitewashed houses and picturesque narrow cobbled streets.
Everything is dean and well kept. The yards and balconies of the houses are bright with flowers and greenery.
The place seems firmly rooted in the traditions of the ancient Milian culture.
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