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Modern Description: A similar, but less well-defined, Archaic fortification is to be found to the south, on the summit of Prophítis Elías Troulakíou (450 m), overlooking the Bay of Kamares from the edge of a precipice. (At 7 km from Artemonas, a dirt-track leads south by the bend below Troulaki; the track climbs for 600m, at which point a final 20-minute climb by foot straight up to the right through dwarf pines leads to the summit.) The church and buildings at the top have been restored in recent times, even though the core foundation here is Middle Byzantine. Before reaching them, the path climbs through a remarkable quantity of fallen, ancient building material. Viewing it from above, the outline of two quadrilateral corner towers can be made out, to southeast and northeast. They have collapsed both inwards and outwards, but their plan is made visible by short runs and angles of larger cut and laid blocks. The line of the wall on the east side is visible: this and to north were the only sides that needed fortification, because natural scarps protected the fort or acropolis to south and west. The ruins of a later, Hellenistic structure also of defensive and surveying purpose, constructed in ashlar masonry perches on the vertiginous slope below, at a point about half way along the line between the shore at Kamares Bay and the summit at Aghios Simeon, to the east of here.
Trismegistos Geo: 61219

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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