Sikinos () is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

and

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' ...

in 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 ...

. It is located midway between the islands of

Ios Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

and Folegandros. Sikinos is part of the Thira regional unit. It was known as Oenoe or Oinoe (, Island of Wine) in

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

. It contrasts with nearby islands, such as

, in being quiet and relatively less developed. There are two villages, "Allopronia" on the south sea side, being the port, and another higher up in the hills being the chora. The chora up on the hills is composed of two settlements adjacent to each other, "Castro" to the west and "Chorio" to the east. There are a handful of tavernas in the chora and harbor. The beach at the harbor is one of two large sandy beaches on the island. Several ancient ruins rest on the island, although some are remote. There are three paved roads, one built to connect to the

heliport A heliport is a small airport which has a helipad, suitable for use by helicopters, powered lift, and various types of vertical lift aircraft. Designated heliports typically contain one or more touchdown and liftoff areas and may also hav ...

and the other sandy beach, and there are several well-maintained dirt roads, and seven mapped footpaths. Much of the island is very difficult to access due to the terrain. Nearly all of the island's area is covered by terraces once used for extensive agriculture. Now only a handful are used across the island, most operating on government subsidies. The municipality had 253 inhabitants at the 2021 census. It includes the uninhabited island of Kardiotissa and other uninhabited islets. Its total land area is . In antiquity, the island contained a town of the same name. It is said to have been originally called Oenoë from its cultivation of the vine, but to have been named Sicinos after a son of Thoas and Oenoe. It was probably colonised by

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 ...

. Like most of the other Grecian islands, it submitted to

Xerxes I Xerxes I ( – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was a List of monarchs of Persia, Persian ruler who served as the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 486 BC until his assassination in 465 BC. He was ...

in the

Greco-Persian Wars The Greco-Persian Wars (also often called the Persian Wars) were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Polis, Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the fractious political world ...

, but it afterwards formed part of the

Athenian 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 ...

maritime empire. There are some remains of the ancient city situated upon a lofty and rugged mountain. There is also still extant an ancient temple of the Pythian Apollo, now converted into the church Episkopí (ἡ Ἐπισκοπή). It stands in a depression between the main range of mountains, and the summit lying more to the left, upon which the ruins of the ancient city stand. We learn from an inscription found there by Ross that it was the temple of the Pythian Apollo. The site was visited by the British explorer Theodore Bent and his wife in January 1884. In 2022, the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades was granted the Europa Nostra Award for its work excavating and restoring the monument, now considered a Roman mausoleum and later Byzantine church.�
Diocese of Sikinos: A unique monument is dedicated to the public today
�� (accessed January 2023).

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Cyclades Municipalities of the South Aegean Populated places in Thira (regional unit) Islands of Greece Landforms of Thira (regional unit) Islands of the South Aegean Members of the Delian League Populated places in the ancient Aegean islands Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Greece Greek city-states