Naxos: Ancient Isle of the Cyclades
Often overlooked by it’s more fancy near neighbours of Mykonos, Santorini, Paros and Ios, Naxos is the largest of the Cyclades and less affected by tourism.
Here in the island’s rugged and green interior agriculture is still a mainstay and in ancient times giant marble quarries supplied the builders and statue makers of Classical Greece.
You can still see quarries cut into the mountainsides today and the trade goes on. It’s possible to see massive unfinished kouri, human figures cut from the rock more than two and a half thousand years ago, in sanctuaries nearby.
In Naxos town an arch from the unfinished Temple of Apollo, erected by a tyrant ruler in 600 BC but never completed, dominates the entrance to the picturesque town.
There are plenty of Byzantine churches on Naxos but like Crete and Corfu the island was also a base for the Venetians from the 13th to the 17th centuries.
The ruins of about 30 Venetian towers, used as fortifications, still survive today.
And handsome Venetian buildings and villas can also be seen and visited.
Destination – Greece and the Greek Islands