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Modern Description: KASOS paid a terrible price for the conspicuous role which its merchant fleet – hastily commissioned as warships – played in the War of Greek Independence in the early 1820's: in June of 1824 the island's buildings were razed, its land and trees torched, the active male population slaughtered and the rest sold into slavery in an act of vengeance at the hands of the Egyptian allies of the Ottoman Sultan, comparable in spirit with what happened on Psará and Chios in the same years. The economy and ecology have only with difficulty begun to recover from this catastrophe. In spite of all this, an unassuming and business-like optimism prevails, which makes visiting Kasos a pleasure, even though its infrastructure and accommodations are still very simple. There are a few sandy beaches, the best of which are on the uninhabited, outlying islets to the north.
The Phoenician ‘kas', meaning sea-spray, is probably the origin of the name ‘Kasos': the island's waters have always been famous for their unpredictability and choppiness. Even though other names for the island appear in Pliny and Stephanos Byzantios (‘Astrabe', ‘Amphe' & ‘Achne'), the island and its city were commonly known by the name ‘Kasos' throughout history. There are scattered traces of a human presence on Kasos (the cave of Ellinokamara) and its outlying islets (Armáthia) from the 4th and 3rd millennia BC; but the earliest explored settlements on the island, show strong Minoan influence and were in the vicinity of Helatros Bay, the island's only sheltered inlet at its southwest corner – the closest point to Crete. These functioned up until c. 1450 BC, after which, with the building of a Mycenaean citadel at Poli, the centre of settlement moved to the north of the island where it has remained until today. Homer (Iliad, II. 676) mentions Kasos participating in the Trojan war with other Dodecanesian islands. The first historical record of the island is in the tribute lists of the Delian League; and Kasiot theoroi, or legates, are recorded at Delos in 275/4 BC. Kasos, even though apparently independent in this period, seems not to have minted its own coins, and after its incorporation into the Rhodian state in the first half of the 2nd century BC used exclusively Rhodian coinage.
With the eradication of Aegean piracy by Pompey the Great after 67 BC, the main settlement of the island moved to the coast, near the site of today's Emboreió. Here it slowly increased in prosperity, culminating in the building of at least two large, Early Christian basilicas and other public buildings. The return of piracy to the seas and the constant threat of Saracen attack meant that settlement abandoned the shores and retreated inland once again. In the Byzantine Empire the island belonged to the theme of Crete. In 1207 it was captured by the Venetians, was briefly taken by the Knights of St. John in 1311, but then returned to Venetian overlords – the Cornaro family – again in 1315, together with Karpathos. After the Turks took the island in 1537, Suleiman the Magnificent granted the island some self-government in return for the maktou, or annual tribute.
Already in the late 17th century the mercantile fleet of Kasos numbered almost 100 ships – a remarkable size for an island with effectively no good, natural harbour. By 1820 the number had grown to almost 700, with a population of islanders of more than 9,000. In the feverish atmosphere of the evolving War of Independence, the fleet became a fighting navy and was turned over to the cause of Greek independence, pursuing raids on the Asia Minor and Levantine coasts. In July 1821 Kasos fought bravely for the liberation of Crete and became a place of refuge for Cretans. These actions provoked the Ottoman Sultan to seek the help of the substantial forces of Mohammed Ali, Khedive of Egypt. In May 1824 the Egyptian navy, under the command of Mohammed Ali's son, Ibrahim Pasha, sailed for Kasos and besieged the island; on June 7th, in a catastrophe never forgotten on the island, the population was massacred and their lands burnt. Males were slaughtered and women and children shipped to Alexandria to be sold into slavery. The island was left abandoned for several years.
By 1830 the few who had escaped and survived were beginning to return and, with the resilience that has always characterised the Aegean islanders, began to rebuild a life on Kasos. By 1843, there was once again a merchant fleet of 75 ships. The 1850s and 1860s saw considerable emigration by Kasiots – ironically – to Egypt to participate in the building of the Suez canal. Italian occupation in 1912 and the development of steam ships, contributed to the slow demise of the Kasiot fleet. In 1948, Kasos joined the Greek State together with the other islands of the Dodecanese. Neither the economy nor the island's vegetation has ever truly recovered from the purge of 1824. The resident population today – just over 1,000 – is a tenth of what it was in the heyday of the early 19th century.
The village of Póli, whose name indicates that it stands on the site of Kasos, the ancient ‘polis' of the island. The attractive and panoramic site, partially protected from view and from the wind, served also as capital and main settlement of the island throughout the Middle Ages. The village clusters round the Church of the Aghia Triada (Holy Trinity) of 1868, which is paved throughout with fine chochlakia pebble-work: its sober black and white colour sets off the fine iconostasis with unusual gilded, trompe l'oeuil ‘scallop niches' over the principal icons. The hillside opposite the church functioned as the acropolis of ancient Kasos.
A wealth of surface pottery finds from the hill (displayed in the Museum in Phry) shows that the site was occupied in the Early Bronze Age, Minoan, Mycenaean, Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman and Early Christian times, with perhaps almost continuous habitation. A constructed citadel was probably first created here in Mycenaean times. Visible on the eastern side are the lower courses of a 4th century fortification wall of roughly squared blocks. It was the lower southern slopes of the hill, and the facing slope to the south, which yielded the 51 circular, inscribed grave-markers which are unique to Kasos from an area occupied by a 4th and 3rd century BC cemetery. An inscription from Olous in eastern Crete refers to a sanctuary of Apollo Temenites on Kasos, which may have stood on the acropolis here.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasos_(city)
Wikidata ID: Q65082025
Trismegistos Geo: 33228

Info: McGilchrist's Greek Islands

(From McGilchrist’s Greek Islands, © Nigel McGilchrist 2010, excerpted with his gracious permission. Click for the books)

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