Amorgos tours are trips with a tour leader on Amorgos, an island of the eastern Cyclades. The page opens with Markiani, a Bronze Age settlement on a hilltop. It then turns to the Delian League and the medieval duchy of Naxos. Ancient Arkesine, its acropolis wall and the fort at Sto Chorio come next. Short answers then cover Aegiale, Minoa, the bay of Agia Anna and the Hozoviotissa icon. Neighbouring islands appear on Best Cyclades islands and Greece island hopping tours. The wider range of trips is listed under Greece tours.
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What are Amorgos tours?
Amorgos tours are expert-led trips across the Greek island of Amorgos. Markiani, on top of a hill there, is a Bronze Age fortified settlement. A fortified settlement is a village guarded by strong walls. Bronze blends copper with tin.
Amorgos tours run on an island where early Cycladic life at Markiani spanned ten centuries. Cycladic describes the early culture of the Cyclades island group. That early phase ran from about 3200 to 2200 BC. People settled on the site again in Hellenistic and Roman times. Hellenistic times came after the wide conquests of Alexander the Great.
Amorgos tours belong to an island that was a Delian League member. The league joined Greek city-states in an alliance under Athens. Amorgos also took part in the Second Athenian League, a later alliance. In the fifth century AD, a bishop named Theodore attended a synod in Constantinople. A synod is a meeting of church leaders.
His signature named him bishop of the Parians, the Sifnians and the Amoulgians, the people of Amorgos. Following the Fourth Crusade, Amorgos became a dependent land of the Naxos duchy. A dependent land is ruled from elsewhere, and a duchy is a state under a duke. Later, other Venetians, people of Venice, disputed the island.
- Explorers: Theodore and Mabel Bent, explorers from Britain, travelled to Amorgos in 1883/4.
- Cemeteries: Cycladic carvings came from burial grounds at Aghia Paraskevi, Aghios Pavlos, Kapros, Nikouria and Stavros.
- Lodging: Katapola, Aegiali and Chora hold the three main areas of tourist lodging on the island.
Tourism on Amorgos is growing slowly. Other activities on the island include scuba diving and free-diving. Scuba divers breathe from a tank of air. Free-diving means diving on one breath alone. Amorgos tours cross this island with a host in charge.
How does ancient Arkesine fit into Amorgos tours?
Amorgos tours are set on an island once home to three main ancient settlements. Arkesine was one of them. Scholars located its site in the 19th century through the great number of inscriptions found on the spot. An inscription is text cut into a stone surface.
Amorgos tours run on an island where Arkesine lay on the north coast, near the southwestern tip. Its ruins sit about 1.5 kilometres north of present-day Vroutsi. Its chief landmark is a steep, rocky headland over the sea. A headland is raised coast poking out to sea. The town’s acropolis, its walled upper town, crowned that headland.
Large parts of the circuit wall round Arkesine’s acropolis still stand. A circuit wall is a ring of defences around a site. Within the area of Amorgos tours, a modern village also bears the name Arkesini. The two places are not the same. The village lies further inland, to the southwest of the ruins.
Sto Chorio lies just north of the modern village, by the chapel of Agia Triada, the Holy Trinity. A small, well-kept fort stands there. It dates from the late Classical or early Hellenistic age. Its plan is a rectangular tower inside a walled enclosure. An enclosure is ground shut in by walls.
- Governor: The Greek orator Androtion governed Arkesine for at least two years, up to 357-356 BC.
- Statesman: Androtion counted among the leading Greek politicians of his own lifetime.
- Villages: The Arkesini community counted 182 people in 2021, across Kalotaritissa, Kalofana, Mavri Myti and Rachoula.
The orator Androtion studied under Isocrates in the late 390s or early 380s BC. Isocrates was an Athenian teacher of public speaking, known as rhetoric. Arkesine was an ancient town of the eastern Cyclades, the setting of Amorgos tours.
What do travellers ask about Amorgos tours, and what are the answers?
Amorgos tours take place in a municipality divided into six communities. Municipality here means a self-governing local district. One community, also called Amorgos, had 409 people in 2021, living in Chora and Kastelopetra. Chora is the Greek word islanders use for a main town.
Before Amorgos tours, what was the ancient town of Aegiale?
Aegiale, also spelt Aigiale, was an ancient town on Amorgos. It also went by the name Begialis. According to inscriptions, Aigiali or Melania are the correct forms of its name. In 2021 the Aigiali community had 536 people, in villages including Agios Pavlos, Ormos Egialis and Potamos.
On Amorgos tours, where did the ancient town of Minoa stand?
Ancient Minoa had its site near modern Katapola, on Moundoulia Hill. The town lay at the centre of the northern side of Amorgos. Today the Katapola community takes in Christoulaki, Lefkes, Nera, Rachidi, Pera Rachidi and Xylokeratidi. A community here means a small local district inside the municipality, with its own villages.
For Amorgos tours, which film features the bay of Agia Anna?
Much of the film The Big Blue was shot on Amorgos. On screen appear the Hozoviotissa monastery and Agia Anna, a bay close to it. In the story, Jacques Mayol and Enzo Molinari spend their childhood on Amorgos in the 1960s. The film’s success made the island a destination for tourists and freedivers.
Which tradition surrounds the Hozoviotissa icon in the land of Amorgos tours?
Panagia Hozoviotissa is a monastery on the cliffside northeast of Chora. Panagia, or All-Holy, names the Virgin Mary in Greek. Tradition says its icon, a holy painting, arrived during the Byzantine Iconoclasm. That was a period of opposition to religious images. Today the public can see the icon within the monastery.
Featured photo: Stathis24 / Stathis24 at Greek Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.