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Modern Description: Beyond the junction at Palatía, the right fork leads down (4.5km), through beautiful and undisturbed landscape, to the west coast at the church of Aghios Theologos. The (main) left branch continues south. A track off to the left after 1800m, leads towards the summit of Mount Zíni: on its southern slopes is the cave of Asprípetra. (A path signed with red, then green, marks on rocks, leaves from the middle of the split in the road 600m down the track from the previous junction: 25 minutes walk.) The cave is small in proportion to its historic importance. First excavated by Italian archaeologists in 1922, it yielded finds and artefacts from the late Neolithic, Mycenaean and Geometric periods, as well as evidence that Pan and the Nymphs were venerated here in Hellenistic and Roman times. The finds point to the existence of a peak sanctuary in the area; the name of the mountain, ‘Zíni', could be cognate with ‘Zeus', suggesting the dedication and the site of such a sanctuary on the summit above.
Trismegistos Geo: 59562
DARE: 36700

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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