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Modern Description: The modern village of Képhalos (35km from Kos) straddles a windswept bluff overlooking the long procession of the island eastwards to the peak of Díkaios. There are also clear sight lines to Kalymnos and Nisyros, and for this reason the Knights of Rhodes built a castle here sometime before 1420—the year in which it is first mentioned in sources. The ruins of its high walls visible today may represent only a part of a larger complex, the rest of which has been swept away since 1505, when the Knights abandoned the outpost in favour of their larger castles at Antimáchia and Kos. The existing walls are in fact only a thin sheathing of the natural, solid outcrop of sandstone which formed the base of the castle: this means that, inside the enceinte, the ground-level is curiously almost at the height of the top of the walls. The fortress originally must have risen beyond this level, to what would have appeared from outside to be a remarkable height. The other summit of the village is occupied by the Papavassilis windmill. North of Képhalos, a left branch in the road leads into an area of stone-walled houses and cultivated enclosures fed by the springs at Miliés: the main road north continues (3.5km) down to the coast, where it drops steeply to the natural harbour of Limiónas.
Trismegistos Geo: 61410
DARE: 38038

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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