The Islands of Telos and Karpathos

Abstract

Having visited these two outlying islands of the Sporadic group last winter, and having spent in them over two months, I propose to put together a few notes on the antiquities to be found in each. They are islands which are very difficult of access and rarely visited by foreigners, and are consequently peculiarly retentive of customs and myths which bear the stamp of extreme antiquity. Both these islands appear to have had a much more considerable population in ancient times than they have now, though much behind their neighbours on Rhodes and Kos in the arts and civilisation.The principal feature of the small island of Telos is a precipitous mountain which rises directly behind the chief of the two modern villages of the island, on the summit of which is a fortress covering a triangular plateau about three quarters of a mile in circumference; the foundation of the walls of this fortress are Hellenic, on which during the Middle Ages more modern walls have been constructed. In the centre of this fortress there stands an Hellenic temple now converted into a church, and almost buried on two sides by the débris of Hellenic masonry covered with brushwood. From the gateway which enters the walls on the south side, a broad approach with steps flanked on either side by huge blocks of stone leads straight to the temple; the form of the proaulion is easily distinguished, and the north wall of the temple is almost intact and built of neatly fitting stones without mortar of a coarse bluish marble.