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Modern Description: The main road ends at the resort of Períssa (11km), which like Kamári stretches behind a beach of black, volcanic sand ending abruptly beneath the bulk of Mesa Vouno, this time on the south side. Scattered across the modern settlement near the foot of the mountain are several areas of excavation where remains of houses—thresholds and walls of the Roman and Hellenistic period—are being revealed. Behind the southeast corner of the dominating church of the Tímios Stavrós (Venerable Cross), sunk below the level of the church's surrounding patio, is the wellpreserved base of a marble funerary monument of the 1st century AD in the form of a circular tower: each block has been meticulously faceted at the rim and the three existing courses of masonry stand on a finely moulded base course. By the northeast corner of the same church are two standing columns of the same epoch. Between the church and the cliff are the ruins of the Early Christian basilica of Aghia Irini, after which the island took its name. It was probably founded in the 5th century, enlarged in the 6th century, abandoned, and then re-roofed in an improvised fashion in the 13th century. Its walls, and the large building to its northwest, incorporate material from pre-existing pagan structures.
Trismegistos Geo: 34123
DARE: 29031

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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