Aegiali of Amorgos is situated at the northern tip of the island and is its second port. The beautiful villages of Potamos, Tholaria and Langada are built on the slopes of the bay and give the area a special beauty. Aegiali, with its many wonderful beaches, is one of the best places to spend your holidays on the island.
You can still stand, or stand still, at the foot of a thousand years of history housed in the Hozoviotissa monastery, and watch from above the dolphins who come to breed off the North East coast of Amorgos.
The nearest Aegean islet floats, the head of a half submerged hippo, guarding their privacy. The monastery is an enormous seagull stain on the dramatic cliffs, and preserves the tradition of a penitential climb towards the miracles and the icon. Except in August, of course, when Mainland Greeks, American Greeks, Italians, French and even some Spanish cinephiles, turn the peaceful pilgrimage into one of the more crowded circles of Hell.
Amorgos, because of the ten hours on the ferry from Pireaus, preserves other traditional Cycladic experiences; the crystal sea, the pristine beach, the picturesque eateries. The main village, Hora Amorgou, is renovating its windmills in homage to, and hopes of, the tourist trade on Mykonos, and high summer brings a tribe of jewellery making ‘trustafairians’, vaguely Goan English public school ‘hippies’ on extended gap years, ‘just travelling round the Med’. So, there are slow changes, and the island is not quite the hermit paradise it used to be. Its starring role in The Big Blue was not a killing blow, however. The virtues of Amorgos performed slow judo on the crowds pulled in by the movie, almost as if the fervent hopes of the cinema tourist had actually managed to reproduce the scenery, the characters and the atmosphere they were expecting from the island. What really happened was that the movie caught some of what was already there, and amplified it, and then the unique conditions of Amorgos, the geography, the history and the sociology, trapped the wave of tourism and coped with it, just like it coped with the tsunami at Ayiali after the 1956 earthquake. Your photographs should feature a small, dark, native and attractive bottle of ‘Psimeni Raki’ , to celebrate this success.
Airport: Athens, then Pireaus and a ferry. Tourist Office: ORMOS EGIALIS
84008 AMORGOS
Greece
phone : (2285)73094
fax : (2285)29099
Email : info@amorgos.net
www.amorgos.net/
A jewel in the Aegean, the easternmost of the Cycladic Islands, it has an evocative beauty, and is remarkably unspoilt. Swimming and plenty of remarkable walks, which give you views to the smaller Cycladic Islands to the north and west. It is a dreamy place, a place to rest and let yourself be taken by a traditional, intimate and quiet life of the island.
The Byzantine monastery of Virgin Mary Chozoviotissa is one of the top attractions of Amorgos island.
It was built in 1088 on a rock 100ft over the sea, and is a typical monument of Byzantine architecture.
Located near to Chora.
www.in2greece.com/english/places/summer/islands/amorgos.htm
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