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The Pleistos (, , ) is a
river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...
in central
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 ...
. It drains the Pleistos valley, named after it, a relatively recent
rift valley A rift valley is a linear shaped lowland between several highlands or mountain ranges produced by the action of a geologic rift. Rifts are formed as a result of the pulling apart of the lithosphere due to extensional tectonics. The linear ...
north of the
Gulf of Corinth The Gulf of Corinth or the Corinthian Gulf (, ) is a deep inlet of the Ionian Sea, separating the Peloponnese from western mainland Greece. It is bounded in the east by the Isthmus of Corinth which includes the shipping-designed Corinth Canal and ...
, and parallel to it. They have the same geologic causes. Being situated in
karst Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...
topography, much of the river runs or seeps through underground channels. The surface stream is intermittent. However, the limestone riverbed reflecting the light gives the appearance of a stream of water. The semi-arid valley floor, too inaccessible for urban development, is eminently suitable for dendriculture. Extensive
olive groves The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of subtropical evergreen tree in the family Oleaceae. Originating in Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean Basin, with wild subspecies in Africa ...
, nicknamed the "sea of olives," have been in place since prehistoric times. The floor is flanked by precipitous elevations, notably a scarp on the north side. The primary access road to the valley runs on the side of the north scarp throughout its entire length. Near the lower valley the road intersects the site of ancient
Delphi Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient Classical antiquity, classical world. The A ...
. Oracular temples have existed there since Mycenaean times. The spring system at Delphi drops into the Pleistos. The lower valley was a seat of Mycenaean power, with capital at Krisa. The Gulf of Corinth was then named the Gulf of Krisa, but in early classical times the states of southern Greece combined to remove Krisa from its predominance in the region.


Geography of the Pleistos and its valley

The true sources of the water in the upper Pleistos are the numerous springs that exude from the base of the north scarp, and waterfalls that pour over it. The scarp is after all the flank of Parnassos. Some ground water must be seeping from it continually as though it were a sieve. This water in all the cracks breaks out rocks by freezing and thawing, while in the soil of the scree it contributes to the fluidity, making landslides more likely. Rockfalls and mudslides are common along the valley, making protection by steel mesh fences a necessity in places, and closing some features of Delphi to the public. Earthquakes, which render the soil momentarily into a fluid, are all the more devastating. Buildings destroyed by them are likely to fall down the scree into the Pleistos. The river begins from sources on the side of Mount Parnassos below the town of
Arachova Arachova (, also Αράχοβα) is a mountain town and a former municipality in the western part of Boeotia. Since the 2011 local government reform it is a municipal unit, part of the municipality Distomo-Arachova-Antikyra. It is a tourist de ...
,
Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinisation of names, Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia (; modern Greek, modern: ; ancient Greek, ancient: ), is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the modern regions of Greece, region of Central Greece (adm ...
, at approximately . The elevation is approximately . The river flows west through a deep valley, between the mountains Parnassos and Kirphe, passing south of
Delphi Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient Classical antiquity, classical world. The A ...
, through the
Delphic Landscape Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The ancient Greeks consid ...
and the Krisaean plain and reaches the Gulf of Itea, a bay of the
Corinthian Gulf The Gulf of Corinth or the Corinthian Gulf (, ) is a deep inlet of the Ionian Sea, separating the Peloponnese from western mainland Greece. It is bounded in the east by the Isthmus of Corinth which includes the shipping-designed Corinth Canal and ...
, near Kirra. The water of the
Castalian Spring The Castalian Spring, in the ravine between the Phaedriades at Delphi, is where all visitors to Delphi — the contestants in the Pythian Games, and especially pilgrims who came to consult the Delphic Oracle — stopped to wash themsel ...
system flows into the Pleistos. The river enters the Gulf of Cornth undramatically through a culvert of the coastal road on the east side of Cirra. A stream a few inches deep leaves the culvert to cross a small delta, geologically of antique origin. This stream is alternately labelled the Pleistos or the Cirra River. On the other side of the road it comes from a wetland passing by St. John's Church. The wetland originates further north from a ravine in
Mount Cirphis Cirphis or Kirphis or Kirfis (, ) is a mountain in Greece north of the Bay of Antikyra in the Gulf of Corinth. It is separated from Mount Parnassus by the valley of the Pleistos. In antiquity, it was reckoned as part of the district of Phocis ...
, but it does not receive any waters above ground from the flow of Pleistos. A few yards to the west of the culvert is another culvert under the same road, but without a delta. Its water comes from an apparent ditch beside the Itea Peripheral Road. Northward this ditch leaves the road and becomes a controlled channel through the olive groves. Along it are private farmhouses and footbridges. The channel is continuous with the stream in the Pleistos Valley. The visible bed is usually empty. If Pleistos means "full" as some say it does, the use must be an irony. Apparently the hydrologic channels were altered in the management of the groves. They cover the entire non-urban areas of the valley system and are called locally "the sea of olives." The stream with the braided delta must represent the more ancient stream, the original Pleistos. During the reconfiguration of the hydrology, the Pleistos was disconnected from its wetlands and forced to irrigate olive trees. The climate is semi-arid. The wetlands then became the Cirra. A similar nomenclature discrepancy exists on the west side of the valley. The Skitsa River erodes the Amfissa Valley and then courses in a straight, controlled channel to the gulf at Itea, irrigating the west side of the valley. The sources say that it also was formerly named the Plistos, implying that the same Plistos river drained both valleys before different channels were dredged. The Pleistos Ravine is at the bottom of a cross-gradient. The upper Pleistos follows the base of
Mount Cirphis Cirphis or Kirphis or Kirfis (, ) is a mountain in Greece north of the Bay of Antikyra in the Gulf of Corinth. It is separated from Mount Parnassus by the valley of the Pleistos. In antiquity, it was reckoned as part of the district of Phocis ...
. There is a gradient across the valley, the high side being on the north. The low side is called by some "the Pleistos ravine." It is joined by a single stream resulting from the merger of the Delphi springs, but does not originate there. The sources are diffuse. The farthest east is a ravine that develops at the foot of the scarp and crosses under Route 48 just below the pass east of
Arachova Arachova (, also Αράχοβα) is a mountain town and a former municipality in the western part of Boeotia. Since the 2011 local government reform it is a municipal unit, part of the municipality Distomo-Arachova-Antikyra. It is a tourist de ...
, a mountain city. The upper Pleistos and its valley are
protected Protection is any measure taken to guard something against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although ...
: no industrial artefacts are to be seen from Delphi (for example high voltage power lines and the like are routed so as to be invisible from the area of the sanctuary). The stream has been left in its original bed, visible as tracks of bare limestone. A hiking trail on the footprint of the original access road begins on the docks at Cirra, proceeds straight up the valley to the upper Pleistos, follows it to the springs, and ascends their stream to the Castalian Spring. The hike takes 3–4 hours. Most visitors take the bus along Route 48. The road at the spring includes a bus park.


Geology of the Pleistos valley system

The Pleistos Valley is an outcome of two main standard movements of the crust: the
orogeny Orogeny () is a mountain-mountain formation, building process that takes place at a convergent boundary, convergent plate margin when plate motion compresses the margin. An or develops as the compressed plate crumples and is tectonic uplift, u ...
of
Parnassus Mount Parnassus (; , ''Parnassós'') is a mountain range of central Greece that is, and historically has been, especially valuable to the Greek nation and the earlier Greek city-states for many reasons. In peace, it offers scenic views of the c ...
and the other mountains of Greece, termed the Hellenides, and back-arc extension, a southward-directed movement of the
Peloponnesus The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic regions of Greece, geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the ...
and Aegean islands.


Hellenic orogeny

Orogeny Orogeny () is a mountain-mountain formation, building process that takes place at a convergent boundary, convergent plate margin when plate motion compresses the margin. An or develops as the compressed plate crumples and is tectonic uplift, u ...
today is considered the result of plate collision. In the theory of
continental drift Continental drift is a highly supported scientific theory, originating in the early 20th century, that Earth's continents move or drift relative to each other over geologic time. The theory of continental drift has since been validated and inc ...
, the surface of the Earth is divided by
mid-ocean ridge A mid-ocean ridge (MOR) is a undersea mountain range, seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics. It typically has a depth of about and rises about above the deepest portion of an ocean basin. This feature is where seafloor spreading ...
s and
oceanic trenches Oceanic trenches are prominent, long, narrow topographic depressions of the ocean floor. They are typically wide and below the level of the surrounding oceanic floor, but can be thousands of kilometers in length. There are about of oceanic t ...
into
plates Plate may refer to: Cooking * Plate (dishware), broad, mainly flat vessel commonly used to serve food * Plates, tableware, dishes or dishware used for setting a table, serving food and dining * Plate, the content of such a plate (for example: ...
, or "
tectonic plates Plate tectonics (, ) is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of , an idea developed durin ...
," which "drift" over the Earth and collide, as though the dense base rock were an ocean and the lighter plates with continents upon them were adrift. The idea of rock drifting over rock impeded the acceptance of continental drift, proposed by
Alfred Wegener Alfred Lothar Wegener (; ; 1 November 1880 – November 1930) was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher. During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and ...
in 1912, until the data gathered in the
International Geophysical Year The International Geophysical Year (IGY; ), also referred to as the third International Polar Year, was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War w ...
of confirmed it. The apparent physical problem was reconciled through a study of the solid-state properties of rock. It is deformable, and the hotter it gets, the more it deforms. Over geologic time the sum of very small deformations under steady pressure gives the impression of a
flow Flow may refer to: Science and technology * Fluid flow, the motion of a gas or liquid * Flow (geomorphology), a type of mass wasting or slope movement in geomorphology * Flow (mathematics), a group action of the real numbers on a set * Flow (psyc ...
. The forces deforming the continental plates across the globe are found in the
Earth's mantle Earth's mantle is a layer of silicate mineral, silicate rock between the Earth's crust, crust and the Earth's outer core, outer core. It has a mass of and makes up 67% of the mass of Earth. It has a thickness of making up about 46% of Earth's ...
, which has a liquid inner portion termed the
asthenosphere The asthenosphere () is the mechanically weak and ductile region of the upper mantle of Earth. It lies below the lithosphere, at a depth between c. below the surface, and extends as deep as . However, the lower boundary of the asthenosphere i ...
and an outer, solid but deformable portion, the
lithosphere A lithosphere () is the rigid, outermost rocky shell of a terrestrial planet or natural satellite. On Earth, it is composed of the crust and the lithospheric mantle, the topmost portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time ...
. The liquid arranges itself by density, heaviest on the bottom, but there is a rising temperature gradient from outer to inner. The hot rock becoming less dense rises in plumes. When one reaches the surface it spreads out, forcing the lithosphere apart. New plate is extruded as lava fills the gap. On the other side of the plate the now cooler material dives down, or is
subducted Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere and some continental lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at the convergent boundaries between tectonic plates. Where one tectonic plate converges with a second plat ...
, beneath the adjacent plate. Orogenies, therefore, are a result of either divergent boundaries, in which divergence thins and weakens the lithosphere allowing
magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma (sometimes colloquially but incorrectly referred to as ''lava'') is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also ...
to escape, building a chain of volcanoes (
Ring of Fire The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) is a tectonic belt of volcanoes and earthquakes. It is about long and up to about wide, and surrounds most of the Pa ...
or
mid-ocean ridge A mid-ocean ridge (MOR) is a undersea mountain range, seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics. It typically has a depth of about and rises about above the deepest portion of an ocean basin. This feature is where seafloor spreading ...
configuration), or convergent boundaries. In the latter one plate is
subducted Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere and some continental lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at the convergent boundaries between tectonic plates. Where one tectonic plate converges with a second plat ...
under another, raising its margin into a mountain chain. The
Hellenic orogeny The Hellenic orogeny is a collective noun referring to multiple mountain building events that shaped the topography of the southern margin of Eurasia into what is now Greece, the Aegean Sea and western Turkey, beginning in the Jurassic. Prior to t ...
is part of a zone of convergence called the
Alpide belt The Alpide belt or Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt,K.M. Storetvedt, K. M., ''The Tethys Sea and the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt; mega-elements in a new global tectonic system,'' Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, Volume 62, Issues 1 ...
. If one can imagine the Eurasian Plate as an anvil, a number of other plates hammer against it from the south. The African Plate moving northward closes
Tethys Ocean The Tethys Ocean ( ; ), also called the Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys, was a prehistoric ocean during much of the Mesozoic Era and early-mid Cenozoic Era. It was the predecessor to the modern Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Eurasia ...
, the much vaster ancestress of the Mediterranean Sea, and raises the
Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...
, the
Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...
, and the mountains of the
Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...
. Further east, the Arabian Plate and the
Indian Plate The Indian plate (or India plate) is or was a minor tectonic plate straddling the equator in the Eastern Hemisphere. Originally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwana, the Indian plate broke away from the other fragments of Gondwana an ...
raise the
Caucasus Mountains The Caucasus Mountains * * Azerbaijani: , * * * * * * * * * * * is a mountain range at the intersection of Asia and Europe. Stretching between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, they are surrounded by the Caucasus region ...
and
Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...
. The zone extends as far as
Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
and
Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...
. The Hellenic orogeny raised the Hellenides, a term in use in geology. The suffix was the innovation of
Eduard Suess Eduard Suess (; 20 August 1831 – 26 April 1914) was an Austrian geologist and an expert on the geography of the Alps. He is responsible for hypothesising two major former geographical features, the supercontinent Gondwana (proposed in 1861) and ...
, author of ''Das Antlitz der Erde ("The Face of the Earth")'', and contemporary of Wegener. The features he was defining to be in the Earth's face are "long, continuous systems of folds which form the mountain chains of the Earth." The chains are arc-shaped, parallel ridges. They must have the same fold structure, which would be revealed by reconstructed cross-section. They must have the same plan revealed by the "trend-lines," one line being reconstructed from the
strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) * Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm * Airstrike, ...
lines of the ridges. Having innovated the concept of systems of folds, to avoid having to list every range in a system, Suess devised a naming method for a system by suffixing -ides to the name of a major range in it. Geology adopted his method and most of his names, even after the change to continental drift. Suess' account of the Mediterranean begins with the subsidence of a zone across a
Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era is the Era (geology), era of Earth's Geologic time scale, geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Period (geology), Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian r ...
supercontinent In geology, a supercontinent is the assembly of most or all of Earth's continent, continental blocks or cratons to form a single large landmass. However, some geologists use a different definition, "a grouping of formerly dispersed continents", ...
,
Pangaea Pangaea or Pangea ( ) was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia during the Carboniferous period approximately 335 mi ...
. The zone stretched from the Pacific to the Atlantic, dividing Pangaea into two forelands, Eurasia and
Gondwana Gondwana ( ; ) was a large landmass, sometimes referred to as a supercontinent. The remnants of Gondwana make up around two-thirds of today's continental area, including South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia (continent), Australia, Zea ...
Land. Suess named the resulting sea Tethys, reusing a local name. Tethys received sediments from the adjoining lands until at last they were compressed upward to become roughly parallel mountain chains striking in an E-W direction (with local variants). Suess needed a word for the chains. He named them collectively after one of the chief ranges, the Altai. The Altaides were all the chains across the entire band, the first of the units. Not enough was known of the mountains of Greece for Suess to distinguish them; he bundled them in with the Dinarides, the Dinaric Alps, which he viewed as a continuation of the Alpides, the mountains of the western Mediterranean, named after the Alps.
Leopold Kober Leopold Kober (21 September 1883 – 6 September 1970), an Austrian geologist, proposed a number of (subsequently largely discredited) theories of orogeny and coined the term '' kratogen'' to describe stable continental crust, which was later short ...
made changes to the system, discarding Altaides and applying Alpides to the entire system, hence the Alpide Belt. Hellenides was distinguished by the geologist, Jean Aubouin, in referring to a hypothetical Hellenides
geosyncline A geosyncline (originally called a geosynclinal) is an obsolete geology, geological concept to explain orogeny, orogens, which was developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before the theory of plate tectonics was envisaged.#Sengor1982, ...
. Aubouin developed his geosyncline theory before IGY 1957. The Hellenides immediately after the Hellenic orogeny are to be viewed as a mountain chain continuous with the Dinarides extending across Greece in a NW-SE direction passing through what is now the northern Aegean and connecting to the mountains of southern Anatolia. The Aegean did not exist. The coastline was regular.


Pleistos rift valley

The Mediterranean is the remnant of the geologically ancient Tethys Sea being closed by the northward movement of the African Plate against the Eurasian Plate. The line of subduction of Africa under Eurasia runs in a general E-W direction through the Mediterranean. The southern margin of Eurasia rises over the subduction to become the mountains of the Alpide Zone as though they were folded up by compression, and to some extent they are. The subducted plate exerts a pressure on the overriding plate normal to the plane of contact. This force vector at any point of the boundary has a vertical component, pushing up the margin, and a horizontal component, compressing and folding the uplifted land. One should therefore expect to find compression also beyond, or inward of the raised margin of the overriding plate, but this is not entirely the case. The margin is being extended out behind the arc of the raised mountains ("back-arc extension" meaning "in back of the arc"), and this extension, or stretching out, causes faults of the
normal Normal(s) or The Normal(s) may refer to: Film and television * ''Normal'' (2003 film), starring Jessica Lange and Tom Wilkinson * ''Normal'' (2007 film), starring Carrie-Anne Moss, Kevin Zegers, Callum Keith Rennie, and Andrew Airlie * ''Norma ...
type instead of the compressional reverse type. It is this extension that results in the maritime topography of modern Greece. The outer chain of the ridge resulting from the orogeny has broken loose and bent southward into the
Hellenic arc The Hellenic arc or Aegean arc is an arcuate mountain chain of the southern Aegean Sea located on the southern margin of the Aegean Sea plate. Geologically it results from the subduction of the African plate under it along the Hellenic subduc ...
. The land behind it has thinned and subsided into Aegean Sea. An arc of volcanos has broken through to form the volcanic Cyclades. The original subduction zone becomes the
Hellenic Trench The Hellenic Trench (HT) is an oceanic trough located in the forearc of the Hellenic arc, an arcuate archipelago on the southern margin of the Aegean Sea plate, or Aegean Plate, also called Aegea, the basement of the Aegean Sea. The HT begi ...
, a deep-sea depression roughly parallel to the outside of the Hellenic Arc. The extension, which is still going on, causes faults and rifts across, or transverse, to the trend of the Hellenides, causing gaps in them. The major one of these is the Corinth Rift, which has opened across the NE-SW striking outer Hellenides, dividing them into the mountains of Central Greece and the mountains of the Peloponnesus. Another, younger rift (1 Ma), the Pleistos Valley, has opened to north of and parallel to the Corinthian Gulf. The scarp of its normal fault is still visible across the north wall of the valley. An unusual circumstance has created the opportunity to found an oracle near the mouth of the valley. One of the reverse faults of the orogeny is cut transversely by the normal fault of the valley, dividing the north wall into two facing peaks, the
Phaedriades In Greece, the Phaedriades (Φαιδριάδες, meaning "the shining ones") are the pair of cliffs, ''ca'' 700 m high on the lower southern slope of Mt. Parnassos, which rise above the sacred site of Delphi. Strabo, Plutarch and Pausanias all ...
. Water draining through the reverse fault enters the valley through a system of springs. The augmented scree provides more top space for terracing. Fortuitously the gap at the top of the scree resemble the vulva, inspiring a specific mythology of the "mother Earth" type. The ancients believed that clear water from springs was inspiring, hence the oracle. There may have been an augmented release of gases due to the intersection of faults, which may have inspired the oracular priestess, but the theory has not been proved. The augmented fault surface probably also increases the probability of earthquakes.


Topography of the Pleistos valley

The Pleistos valley is not much of a rift valley. The rift is relatively recent, the separation is slight, and a scarp is still visible all the way from Amphissa to the head of the valley. It is not unmitigated, however. There are few places where the climber might have to ascend a thousand-foot cliff. Most of the scarp has been subject to extensive rockfalls and landslides, which have created a slope of
scree Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. The term ''scree'' is ap ...
up to about 50% of the scarp. The scree extends over the entire valley floor up to the Pleistos ravine. Slopes vary from very slight to up to 60°. The bare scarp varies from 60° to 90° and beyond, if there is an overhang. In general, the scree is on the
footwall In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic f ...
of the fault, but erosion has produced some overhangs. There is no
meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the Channel (geography), channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erosion, erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank (cut bank, cut bank or river cl ...
to speak of on the valley floor, and thus no plain, and but little agriculture. The rolling hills that have developed are suitable for dendroculture. There is also no room for any highway or any extensive structures. The surface is laced with dirt roads for access to the olive trees. Many of these ascend the scree. Delphi is not perched on a cliff; all the cliffs are above it. There is no problem ascending to Delphi or descending from it to tend to the trees. All builders, however, found it necessary to create terraces on which to place the structures. The archaeological site features multiple terraces with retaining walls. The Sacred Way must ascend to the terraces on ramps. Photographs from above showing the edges of the terraces are apt to be misleading. There is no drop-off. A grassy slope leads downward. In modern times the access problem was solved by leveling the top of the scree and building a road there. The highway is good, two-lane, hard-top road, which gains or loses altitude in a few places by some hairpin legs. A highway fence lines the outside of the road. Many parking areas for viewing have been excavated into the scarp or placed on filled extensions to the width. The Sacred Precinct in particular has been provided with a large bus park. The road goes right through the middle of the site, creating an upper and a lower site. Most pictures, however, never show the road. They give the illusion of the scree merging directly to the bare scarp, which only happens at the top of the upper site.


The valley in history

Solon Solon (; ;  BC) was an Archaic Greece#Athens, archaic History of Athens, Athenian statesman, lawmaker, political philosopher, and poet. He is one of the Seven Sages of Greece and credited with laying the foundations for Athenian democracy. ...
of Athens is said to have used
hellebore Commonly known as hellebores (), the Eurasian genus ''Helleborus'' consists of approximately 20 species of herbaceous or evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants in the family (biology), family Ranunculaceae, within which it gave i ...
roots to poison the water in an aqueduct leading from the River Pleistos around 590 BC during the siege of Kirrha. The river Pleistos was also mentioned by the ancient geographers
Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...
and Pausanias. Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' 10.8.8 Nowadays, the river has water mainly in the winter, whereas in the summer it dries out.


Gallery

File:Arachova BW 2017-10-08 07-58-08.jpg, The head of the valley looking down to Arachova File:Arachova2015.jpg, Downtown Arachova File:Arachova, Greece.jpg, At Arachova looking down the valley File:20090802 delphes31.jpg, At Delphi looking up the Pleistos ravine File:Delfos 05.jpg, The sea of olives below Delphi File:Delphi Greece (51).jpg, At the town of Delphi looking toward the gulf File:Greece-0701 (2216533706).jpg, Itea from the scarp over the valley File:Hrisso01.jpg, Chrisso overlooking the sea of olives, gulf in the background File:Itea - panoramio.jpg, The beach at Itea


See also

*
Geology of Greece The geology of Greece is highly structurally complex due to its position at the junction between the European and African Plate tectonics, tectonic plates. Geologic history, stratigraphy & tectonics Some of the oldest rocks in Greece are from the ...


Footnotes


Citations


Citation references

* * * * * *


External links

{{Commons category-inline Rivers of Greece Rivers of Central Greece Landforms of Boeotia Landforms of Phocis Drainage basins of the Gulf of Corinth