The remote islands of the Sporades
The Sporades, off the coast of Greece, are a line of islands stretching out into North Aegean. Once a refuge for pirates, known variously as Satan's Islands, Demon Islands, Thieves' Dens and the islands of the Magnesians, the Northern Sporades - literally meaning 'scattered' - with their dramatic changes from island to island, strange geological forms and historical remains, are among Greece's most delightful secrets.
The three islands nearest the mainland, Skiathos, Skopelos and Alonnisos, are generally well known to visitors. However the islands further out are not so well known and retain the feel and charm of an older era. This area is well known to flotilla and other yacht sailors for whom it provides a quieter cruising area than the Ionian, the busier counterpart on the Greek west coast.
A constellation of glittering jewels scattered across the Aegean Sea, the Sporades are some of Northern Greece's best-kept secrets.
Beyond Alonnisos there are:
- Peristera with its sheltered bays,
- Kyra Panagia (also known by the name of Pelagos) with its two magnificent anchorages, one an inland lake, and St. Peter's bay
- mountainous Gioura,
- Piperi,
- volcanic Psathoura with its monumental lighthouse, far to the North,
- remote Skantzoura, and some more.
As with so much of Greece, the area has an intensive history from Myceanean and then Classical times down through the ages till the most recent era. Thousands of ships of all epochs lie on the sea-bed of the Sporades, constituting perhaps the most important collection of wrecks in the world, not only for their sheer number but also because of their significance and antiquity.
From the time men first set sail with primitive log boats to today's high-technology ships, these islands have served as an important junction, stopping place and refuge. All these wrecks, preserved from human greed and natural disasters, still lie on the sea-bed, ready to deliver their secrets to those who care to look.
