Carthaea

The ruins of the acropolis, town-centre and fortifications of ancient Karthaia have been preserved for centuries on the Aspri Vigla hills, Pindar’s “narrow ridge of land“.

[1] Two valleys, of the Kalamitsis on the east and the Vathypotamos on the west, and the sea on the south define the site completely, create a closed unit with a beautiful natural landscape, a refuge for important populations of various species of bird-life, and a place conducive to a variety of endemic pharmaceutical and aromatic plants.

Even today, Carthaea can be approached by land only on foot, walking for more or less an hour along cobbled paths, which in most cases follow the lines of ancient pathways, or by sea, by small boat, anchoring in the same place as the craft of previous periods, without the aid of modern harbour facilities.

On the eastern side an impressive Late Archaic flight of stairs partly carved in the bedrock led to a path (“processional way”) which connected the upper to the lower plateau.

At the top of the Aspri Vigla hill, where the modern church of the Theotokos of the Myrtles now stands, there was another ancient temple dedicated to an unknown deity.

An Early Christian basilica lies in the bed of the Vathypotamos and is built with reused material from an ancient temple in the area, attributed to Demeter.

All over the slopes of the hill were constructed the private houses of the Carthaeans, of which many walls, thresholds, heaps of stones and minor objects (pottery and tools) bear witness.

In several parts of the ancient city, e.g. south of the theater, east of the Apollo temple and along the way connecting the two terraces, there are remains of cisterns and pipes for the supply of water, dated to the Hellenistic until the Late Roman period.

As no serious research had been conducted in the area till 1811, travellers identified the imposing ruins with Ioulis and situated Carthaea in the place of modern Chora, a frequent mistake marked also on maps of this period.