[Schroder]

The island of Nisyros is an active volcano in the Dodacanese islands of Greece and lies 40 miles North of Rhodes and 12 miles from the coast of Turkey. The island is about 5 miles in diameter with a 2 mile wide central caldera that contains 4 major craters. There are 6 major summits forming the crater rim that are between 2000 and 2300 feet. I spent a week hiking several of the trails on the island at the end of a sailing trip through the Dodacanese. There are several trails starting at sea level from 5 directions and connect the 4 inhabited villages and 3 abandoned ones, going over the crater as well as circumnavigating it. The European Union is making a concerted effort to restore much of the ancient trail system that has existed on the island since 2000 BC and has been partially destroyed by road construction in the last 2 decades.

sailing toward Nisyros

sunrise

sunrise

Most of the coast is rocky lava flows but there are a couple of nice sandy beaches that require about a mile hike to get to. This one on the East side of the island is believed to be where the first inhabitants landed and had the only source of spring water. The only water source now is rainwater collection during the winter.

Pacheia Ammos beach

Pacheia Ammos beach

cistern

Nisyros is known for its wildflowers. Of course this time of year there wasn’t much to see but in the spring, the entire island is blanketed with flowers.

flowers along trail

flower on cliff

Mt Diavatis trailhead

Wildlife is scarce. There were lizards everywhere and in the dark rocky areas there were lots of scorpions & they stung right through clothing. There were also goats everywhere.

trail lizard

"Mountain" goats

trail marker (red dot)

Nikia trail

Mt Diavatis trail

looking North from Diavatis

They have benchmarks similar to ours. Instead of fire lookouts, there are small chapels on every peak.

benchmark

summit of Diavatis

summit of Diavatis

Mt Diavatis trail

Mt Diavatis trail

spiladi, or farm hut

Instead of blueberries, there are olives to eat along the trail

olive tree

shaking olives

olive snack

The craters put out a lot of steam & sulfur and you can walk into them as close as you dare. The smell overwhelms you long before the heat.

inside the caldera

Polyvotis Crater

Polyvotis Crater

Polyvotis Crater

steam vents

steam vents

steam vents on Polyvtis lava dome

Polyvotis Crater

sulfur deposits

caldera and Stefanos Crater

lava formation

caves near Irini

There are lots of signs of ancient civilization: pot shards, Minoan pillars and carved stones. We hiked to a hanging valley between the 2 major summits (Nyfios valley) and found a Minoan marker and a cave with a Minoan pillar inside.

1 label

Parletia formation

pillar on Parletia

Minoan marker

pillar in cave at Nyfios

Nyfios hanging valley

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Nyfios hanging valley

The village where we stayed is Nikia, or the Eagles Nest, on the south rim of the crater. It was home to 500 people before 1940, but there are only about a dozen residents today.

Nikia, the "Eagles Nest"

sunset

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[Kim Brown]

Welcome back, Randy! "sunrise" is a gorgeous photo. Great writeup, too! You folks should have a slideshow and invite me over for dinner.

[Karen²]

Beautiful! And Quark is right on, those sunrise shots are very cool!

[TrailPair]

very cool! A trip to Greece....with a climb of Mt Olymous is one of my dream trips.....followed, of course by visitig some of the Greek islands