Amorgos (, ; ) is the easternmost island of the

Cyclades The CYCLADES computer network () was a French research network created in the early 1970s. It was one of the pioneering networks experimenting with the concept of packet switching and, unlike the ARPANET, was explicitly designed to facilitate i ...

island group and the nearest island to the neighboring

Dodecanese The Dodecanese (, ; , ''Dodekánisa'' , ) are a group of 15 larger and 150 smaller Greek islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Anatolia, of which 26 are inhabited. This island group generally define ...

island group in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. Along with 16 neighbouring islets, the largest of which (by land area) is Nikouria Island, it comprises the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

of Amorgos, which has a land area of and at the 2021 census had a population of 1,961.

Geography

Due to its position near the ancient

Ionia Ionia ( ) was an ancient region encompassing the central part of the western coast of Anatolia. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements. Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionians who ...

n towns, such as

Miletus Miletus (Ancient Greek: Μίλητος, Mílētos) was an influential ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, near the mouth of the Maeander River in present day Turkey. Renowned in antiquity for its wealth, maritime power, and ex ...

Halicarnassus Halicarnassus ( ; Latin: ''Halicarnassus'' or ''Halicarnāsus''; ''Halikarnāssós''; ; Carian language, Carian: 𐊠𐊣𐊫𐊰 𐊴𐊠𐊥𐊵𐊫𐊰 ''alos k̂arnos'') was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek city in Caria, in Anatolia.

and

Ephesus Ephesus (; ; ; may ultimately derive from ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, in present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, the former Arzawan capital ...

, Amorgos became one of the first places from which the

Ionians The Ionians (; , ''Íōnes'', singular , ''Íōn'') were one of the traditional four major tribes of Ancient Greece, alongside the Dorians, Aeolians, and Achaeans. The Ionian dialect was one of the three major linguistic divisions of the ...

passed through to the

Cycladic Islands The CYCLADES computer network () was a French research network created in the early 1970s. It was one of the pioneering networks experimenting with the concept of packet switching and, unlike the ARPANET, was explicitly designed to facilitate in ...

and onto the

Greek mainland Greece is a country in Southeastern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. It is bordered to the north by Albania, North Macedonia and Bulgaria; to the east by Turkey, and is surrounded to the east by the Aegean Sea, to the south by the Cretan and th ...

History

Throughout history, Amorgos was also known as Yperia, or Platagy, Pagali, Psichia, and Karkisia. Amorgos features many remnants of ancient civilizations. At the time of

Archaic Greece Archaic Greece was the period in History of Greece, Greek history lasting from to the second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC, following the Greek Dark Ages and succeeded by the Classical Greece, Classical period. In the archaic period, the ...

, there were three independent city-states there. They are believed to have featured autonomous constitutions but the same currency. Amorgos is distinguished by the size and quality of the walls surrounding the city of Arkesine (), the ancient towers whose remains are scattered around the island, ancient tombs, stone tools, inscriptions, vases and by other antiquities. Arcesine or Arkesine was one of the three main settlements on the island in antiquity. Due to the name Minoa for one of its ancient cities, it is suspected that Amorgos had been colonized by the

Cretans Crete ( ; , Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete is loc ...

from ancient times, but no known archeological evidence supports this view. The island was visited by the British explorers Theodore and

Mabel Bent Mabel Virginia Anna Bent (née Hall-Dare, a.k.a. Mrs J. Theodore Bent) (28 January 1847 – 3 July 1929), was an Anglo-Irish explorer, excavator, writer and photographer. With her husband, J. Theodore Bent, she spent two decades (1877–1897) t ...

in 1883/4.

Early Cycladic period

Excavations and findings, especially burial tombs, prove the intense presence of Amorgos during the

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

years, particularly during the first period of

Cycladic civilization Cycladic culture (also known as Cycladic civilisation) was a Bronze Age culture (c. 3100–c. 1000 BC) found throughout the islands of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea. In chronological terms, it is a relative dating system for artifacts which is r ...

(3200 to 2000 BC). Almost a dozen separate inhabited centres are known in this period. Amorgos is the origin of many famous Cycladic figurines. ‘Dokathismata style’ figurines were originally found here. Cycladic sculptures had been discovered from the cemeteries at Aghia Paraskevi, Aghios Pavlos, Dokathismata, Kapros, Kapsala, Nikouria and Stavros. www.amorgos-island-magazine.com 'Kapsala Cycladic figurines', dating around 2700 B.C., are named after a find place in Amorgos. This is the earliest of the 'canonical types' – a reclining female with folded arms. They tend to have slender and elongated proportions. At this time, anatomical features such as arms are modeled three-dimensionally. With the later types, sculptors tended to render this feature with incised lines. 'Dokathismata Cycladic figurines' date from a somewhat later period of 2400–2100 BC. Compared to the statuettes of the Spedos type—the most common and renowned type of figurines featuring finely modeled and somewhat rounded shapes—the statuettes of the Dokathismata type tend to have a more slender and sometimes angular silhouette.

Classical period

In approximately 630 BC, the poet

Semonides Semonides of Amorgos (; , variantly ; fl. 7th century BC) was a Greek iambic and elegiac poet who is believed to have lived during the seventh century BC. Fragments of his poetry survive as quotations in other ancient authors, the most extens ...

led the foundation of a

Samian Samos (, also ; , ) is a Greece, Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese archipelago, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the Mycale Strait. It is also a separate ...

colony on Amorgos. The ''

Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax The ''Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax'' is an ancient Greek periplus (περίπλους ''períplous'', 'circumnavigation') describing the sea route around the Mediterranean and Black Sea. It probably dates from the mid-4th century BC, specifically t ...

'' mentions it as ''Tripolis''. It was a member of the

Delian League The Delian League was a confederacy of Polis, Greek city-states, numbering between 150 and 330, founded in 478 BC under the leadership (hegemony) of Classical Athens, Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Achaemenid Empire, Persian ...

. It participated in the

Second Athenian League The Second Athenian League was a maritime confederation of Polis, Greek city-states that existed from 378 to 355 BC under the leadership (hegemony) of Classical Athens, Athens. The alliance represented a partial revival of the Delian League, which ...

. The names of the three cities given by Stephanus Byzantinus are Arkesini, Minoa, Aigiali or Melania which, according to inscriptions, are the most correct. The three towns are on the island's west coast because that is where bays and natural ports that could provide the proper positioning for seaside towns and forts exist. Aigiali was on the north East Side of the island close to the present day locations of Tholaria and Stroumvos. Minoa was situated at the center of the northern side near the present day village of Katapola and Arkesini on the present-day location Kastri. In 322 BC,

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

and

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

fought the naval

Battle of Amorgos The Battle of Amorgos was one of the naval battles of the Lamian War (323–322 BC), fought between the Macedonian navy under Cleitus the White and the Athenian navy under Euetion. Although few details are known, it was a clear Athenian defea ...

Heraclides Lembus Heraclides Lembus (, ''Hērakleidēs Lembos'') was an Ancient Greek statesman, historian and philosophical writer whose works only survive in fragments quoted in later authors. Life Heraclides was an Egyptian civil servant who lived during the re ...

wrote that the island produced much wine, as well as olive oil and fruits. With the passing of time, the island's name changed to ''Amolgon'' and ''Amourgon''.

Byzantine, Venetian, Ottoman and Modern

In the 5th century, Bishop Theodore, who attended a

synod A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word '' synod'' comes from the Ancient Greek () ; the term is analogous with the Latin word . Originally, ...

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

, signed as Bishop of the Parians, Sifnians, and Amoulgians. After the

fourth crusade The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S ...

it became a dependency of the

duchy of Naxos The Duchy of the Archipelago (, , ), also known as Duchy of Naxos or Duchy of the Aegean, was a maritime state created by Venetian interests in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea, in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, centered on the i ...

but was later disputed by other Venetians. In 1312, the Hospitaller fleet defeated a fleet of Menteshe at the island. It was known as ''Yamurgi'' during Ottoman rule between 1537 and 1829. It became part of Greece upon independence in 1830. On 9 July, the 1956 Amorgos earthquake occurred, with its

epicentre The epicenter (), epicentre, or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Determination The primary purpose of a s ...

about south of the island. The shock had a

moment magnitude The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mwg, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. was defined in a 1979 paper ...

of 7.7 and had a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (''Violent''). The earthquake generated a local

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

of up to at Amorgos and nearby islands. Fifty-three people were killed and 100 were injured.

Cinema and popular culture

The island was featured in

Luc Besson Luc Paul Maurice Besson (; born 18 March 1959) is a French filmmaker. He directed and produced the films '' Subway'' (1985), '' The Big Blue'' (1988), and '' La Femme Nikita'' (1990). Associated with the '' Cinéma du look'' film movement, he h ...

's film ''

The Big Blue ''The Big Blue'' (released in some countries under the French title ''Le Grand Bleu'') is a 1988 drama film directed by Luc Besson. Inspired by the '' Cinéma du look'' movement, the film is a heavily fictionalized and dramatized story of the ...

'' (1988) and "Two tickets to Greece", France, 2023 in which Agia Anna and the monastery of Panagia Hozoviotissa can be seen. The island was also featured in Giorgos Kordelas' film ''Ariadni'' (2002). Amorgos has been referenced online due to the similarity of its name to that of the video game ''

Among Us ''Among Us'' is a 2018 online multiplayer social deduction game developed and published by American game studio Innersloth. The game allows for cross-platform play; it was released on iOS and Android (operating system), Android devices in J ...

''.

Municipal districts

The municipality of Amorgos is subdivided into the following communities (population at 2021 census and constituent villages within brackets): * Aigiali (536, Aigiali, Agios Pavlos, Ormos Egialis, Potamos) *Amorgos (409, Chora, Kastelopetra) * Arkesini (182, Arkesini, Kalotaritissa, Kalofana, Mavri Myti, Rachoula) * Katapola (568, Katapola, Lefkes, Nera, Xylokeratidi, Pera Rachidi, Rachidi, Christoulaki) * Tholaria (154, Tholaria, Paralia Tholarion) * Vroutsis (75, Vroutsis, Kamari)

Historical population

Climate

Amorgos has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate with mild temperatures all year.

Landmarks

The

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

of Panagia Hozoviotissa is situated on the cliffside, northeast of Chora. It was built early in the second millennium in order to protect a religious icon, dating from the year 812, from intruders. The icon is on public display inside the monastery. Opening time for visitors every day from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m and 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Visitors have to be dressed in a specific way in order to enter. Men have to wear long trousers and women a skirt or a wrap around shift down to the knee, not trousers. The shift may, however, be worn over trousers. As of July 2012, the monastery is active and houses three practicing monks. Tourism is increasing slowly, although the island's geographical features prevent mass tourism. It is accessible only by boat. The three main tourist accommodations are located in Katapola, Aegiali and Chora. Hiking paths are relatively well maintained. Other activities include scuba diving, free-diving, and visiting the island's beaches (although this isn't its main attraction, like other Greek islands). Another landmark in the area is a group of

windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...

s that can be seen on a hill above Chora. A couple of them can be visited, while others are either locked or in ruins. It's easy to reach the location either by car or on foot, going through Chora. There is no admission to enter the area.

References

Sources

External links

The official Amorgos web site at Amorgos.gov.gr
Amorgos Portal by the Municipality of Amorgos * * {{Authority control Populated places in Naxos (regional unit) Mediterranean port cities and towns in Greece Cyclades Municipalities of the South Aegean Islands of Greece Landforms of Naxos (regional unit) Islands of the South Aegean Members of the Delian League