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'.
