Modern Description:
From the junction at the summit above Aghios Mamas the track continues for a further 3 km towards the eastern extremity of the island to one of the island's most evocative antiquities, located in a wild corner of the island, referred to locally as ‘Grámmata' (‘letters') because of the ancient, 2nd century BC inscriptions there. The site lies almost due east of where the broad track ends, on a ledge in the precipitous drop of the east-facing slope of the mountains above the bay between Aktí and Zanní points (the former is the curious spit of low rock that projects into the channel between Kasos and Karpathos at the eastern extremity of the island). It appears to have been an open-air sanctuary to the ‘Gods and the Nymphs', who may have been evoked here in their capacity as protectors of mariners. (It is not clear exactly which divinities are referred to here: some commentators have suggested that they are the Cabiri, or ‘Great Gods', of Samothrace.) The sanctuary overlooked, and would have been visible from, the channel below – a stretch of water which causes apprehension in mariners for its powerful currents and the way in which it funnels the wind. Preserved on the rock are carved inscriptions greeting and invoking the divinities. DARE: 36691
