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Modern Description: The right fork at the junction (1km back towards the military camp) climbs steeply and soon becomes an unmade track. The two most important sources of water on the mountain, both of which were used in Antiquity at the Asklepieíon, can be reached by this route.
First, the Kokkinó Neró source—so-called (‘Red water') because of its high iron content. (Take first track left, before asphalt ends; after 400 m, an outcrop of large triangular rocks is visible on the hillside to right, just before the track crosses the gorge of a seasonal torrent. On the hill, well above the rocks are the remains of the Spring House.) The spring fed an Ottoman aqueduct whose pipes can be followed back a few hundred metres from the ruined Spring House to the water source, amongst the trees.
Second, the Spring of Vourína, a much more vigorous source of water which still furnishes the city of Kos today.
(Returning to the asphalt once again, continue uphill, following what becomes a dust track as it climbs out of the trees and passes the minuscule chapel of Aghios Mámas. Keep left at the chapel, continue to climb and take the first sizeable track available to the right. From here always keep to the right as the track curves through pine trees and then levels out, heading west. Eventually the track traverses a wide, open area: uphill to the left is visible a stand of poplars: the spring is above this. In all, c. 3.3km beyond Aghios Mámas.) Vourína is the ancient spring, Boúrina, mentioned by the 3rd century BC poet, Theocritus in line 6 of his Seventh Idyll, the ‘Harvest Feast'—perhaps his most famous and successful Bucolic poem, which is set in an idealised Coan landscape.
… from the rock The Fount Bourina sprang, whereby a grove Rose at the side, that elms and poplars wove With green leaves in a shady roofing pleached.
Only a few poplars remain today: but remarkably—although any external monument has now gone—the interior of the ancient fountain-house, built into the hillside, is still perfectly preserved. A 30m passageway (c. 0.90 x 2.0m) lined with dressed blocks of limestone leads into the main spring chamber, which is cylindrical with a tall, bee-hive cupola—all constructed from neatly cut blocks which would suggest a late Hellenistic date. Scratched in the walls of the interior chamber are graffiti, many of which are ancient. An entrance further up the hill marks a small window which looks into the bee-hive chamber from on top. The water still rises with considerable force: its taste is delicious and particularly soft.

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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