Modern Description:
The upland area inside the triangle formed by Palaiochóri, Zephyría, and Kato Kómia—i.e. the central east of the island—is a strange landscape, remarkably rich in a diversity of minerals, which was once inhabited by those who worked them but is now virtually deserted. There are also a number of interesting churches. The unmade roads that traverse the area depart from the east end of Zephyría, signed ‘Θειωρυχεία' (‘Theiorycheía' or ‘sulphur mines'). Taking a left fork after 1km, the road climbs up to the church of the Panaghia Kastrianí (dedicated to the Virgin as ‘Zoödochos Pigi' or ‘Fount of Life'), situated on a bluff with a commanding view of the plain below, the bay of Milos, Pláka and Kastro, and the island of Antímilos in the distance. The low barrel-vaulted structure, supported by neatly cut bracing arches, incorporates several decorative elements from an Early Christian predecessor—over the west door, and in the interior at the north and south windows. The road continues through an empty landscape, with occasional steep scarps of brilliantly coloured earth, to Kómia, where the east coast and the island of Polyaigos come into view. The valley below was a major source of light, easily worked building material—bentonite— which was cut here on Milos and exported to construction sites on the mainland during the last century. This explains why, apart from the walls for defining the fields, there are also heaps of stones on all sides, looking like buildings shaken down by earthquakes, especially lower down near Kato Kómia. Three hundred metres before entering Kato Kómia, you pass the church of Aghia Barbara, poised on a shelf of the hillside with panoramic views. Both this church and the double church of the Koimisis (Dormition) and of the Taxiarches (Archangels) in Kato Kómia itself, contain many marble fragments from destroyed Early Byzantine buildings, both stacked outside and incorporated in the structures and their altars.
Info: McGilchrist's Greek Islands 
(From McGilchrist’s Greek Islands, © Nigel McGilchrist 2010, excerpted with his gracious permission. Click for the books)
