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| Map of Sikinos |
Sikinos has
so small extension and population -40km2
and 270 residents- that the mule ride or walk from the port up to the
capital was only replaced by a bus in the late 1980s. At roughly the same time
the new jetty was completed. Until then Sikinos was the last major Greek island
where ferry passengers were still taken ashore in launches. With no extravagant
characteristics and no nightlife to speak of, few foreigners make the short
trip over here from Folegandros or Ios. The end result, however, is the most
unspoilt rural countryside in the Cyclades
where the image of a priest riding a donkey can suddenly materialize from over
a hill.
Hora or
Sikinos , the capital, consists of the double village of Kastro
and Horio. Most of the facilities are in the larger, northeastern Kastro,
whereas Horio is mainly residential. Northeast from Hora is Paleokastro, the
patchy remains of an ancient fortress. In the opposite direction , a
ninety-minute walk takes leads to an old path throufh a steeply terraced
landscape to Episkopi, where elements of an ancient temple-tomb have been
incorporated into a seventh-century church - the structure is known formally as
the Heroon, though it is now thought to have been a Roman mausoleum rather than
a temple of Hera.
