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Ioulída - Messariá - Profítis Ilías - Astrá - Elliniká - Agios Simeoón - Karthéa |
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Evaluation:
In most publications on Tzia, this hike, which is signposted all the way
by means of the trail marker [3], is considered as the most beautiful of
the island. The trajectory along the Profítis Ilías, which runs through
a unique oak forest, and the part from Agios Simeoón to Karthéa are
magnificent, indeed. It is a pity, though, that a few parts of the
original road between Karthéa and Ioulída (two of the four ancient big
cities of the island, the so-called "tetrapolis") have disappeared when
the modern road was constructed – as a result, you have to walk a couple
of kilometres on the asphalt road. Without counting the stretches on
this asphalt road, this hike would deserve the maximum evaluation of
****; now, the entire hike definitely gets an evaluation of ***.
[As hike [3] follows for about 1,8 km the asphalt road, you could choose
the solution that consists in splitting up this long hike into two
parts. See the walks
Ioulída - Messariá -
Episkopí - Profítis Ilías and back AND Agios Simeoón – Karthéa and
back.]
Estimated time: In one direction, this long hike of 13,2 km takes 4 hours of actual walking time:
about 50 minutes to the junction at Episkopí, some 35 minutes for the
trajectory past the Profítis Ilías to the road, then you have to walk on
asphalt for 24 minutes until you get to Elliniká.
From there, it takes 1h10 until the road to Agios Simeoón (a few parts
are made out of gravel, but there are also 19 minutes of asphalt road)
and finally, fortunately, there is a marvellous stretch of 55 minutes
till Karthéa or the bay of Póles. Route description: (0h00) For all hikes departing from Chóra you leave from the upper parking lot (with bus stop). You walk on the left of the small shop of Kianos, through the picturesque arched passage (the stóa). In this way you arrive at a tiny square, the Piátsa, with the outdoor terrace of the café/estiatório I Piátsa.
The stóa that leads to the Piátsa.
The Piátsa.
The small street on
the left leads to the Kástro (hiking sign [2]), but you take a right
(hiking sign for the hikes [1], [3], [4], [10] and [1]), through a
modern vault, to the centre. After some 20 metres you keep to the right:
in front of you, you can see the church with the red dome of the Agios
Dimítrios. You pass the nice bar + outdoor terrace En Levkoó and via the
Odós A. Lazarídi it takes you a few hundred metres to get to the central
square, the "platía", with the "dimarchío" or town hall. The hiking sign in Ioulída, at the beginning of walk [3].
The stóa that leads to the Piátsa. (0h06) You thus take a right into the Odós Ilía Malavózou, which is a nice staircase street. After 14-15 steps you go up straight across and to the right [3] and further on you keep to the left [3]. After 77 steps you pass a chapel [3]: the street continues to go up and by means of a small, climbing concrete road, you leave the village after 4 minutes; on the left you have a nice view on the site of the Lion.
View on the site of the Lion and path [1].
Another 2-3 minutes later you pass a nice well
+ washing-place; from here, the view on the location of the Lion and on
the trail of hike [1], which runs past the cemetery, above the Lion and
then further on, is the most beautiful. The following climb up is really
steep and then you arrive at the asphalt road; the staircase continues
on the opposite side [3].
(0h19)
The beautiful path, which is in the beginning a broad and paved
staircase, later on an rocky path and a little road, passes a few
houses. Some 4-5 minutes later it gets to a little asphalt road, where
you go diagonally to the left and you arrive at the asphalt road after
about one minute.
(0h27)
A gravel road continues straight across ( [3] on the left-hand wall).
Almost immediately, the monopáti continues on the right [3], and it is
nicely paved now and then. After another 5 minutes, at a tall
electricity pole, there is a junction: trail [3] continues on the left.
The path is now narrow and
stony and it descends gradually for about 3 minutes; it then continues
as a grassy and flat monopati [3], dug in between walls. (0h38) At a bifurcation, the trail goes up to the left [3], but past some ruins, it goes down again; you reach in this way a road that ends here [3]: you take a left for a short while, but immediately, you take a sharp right [3]. The beautiful path descends between walls for about 4 minutes, it goes up again and it arrives at a wonderful well with clear, potable water - the sign indicates the year 1879.
The well in Messariá.
(0h47) You take the nice
staircase going up on the left and after 2 minutes already, you reach a
clear three-forked junction, where the hikes [3] and [4] split: walk [3]
continues up on the right, and straight ahead you could go to Sykamiá
(via walk [4]) and also to the old monastery of Episkopí.
[The small detour to Episkopí – so straight ahead and after 2-3 minutes
taking a right at a hiking sign – will only cost you 15 minutes, up and
down.]
(0h49)
You thus go up to the right and at first, you follow a beautifully
shaded staircase; later on it turns into a regular path. After 5 minutes
this path brings you to the gravel road coming from Episkopí and then it
gets to the asphalt road, on the right.
(0h54)
You take a RIGHT – against your expectation -
for only one minute and between two houses you find to the LEFT
the beginning of your trail [3] again, between walls (the hiking sign “Profítis
Ilías 25 minutes” and the trail marker [3] had disappeared in October
2015).
The nice monopáti close to the Profítis Ilías.
(1h16)
This stretch is followed by some 4 wonderful minutes, while climbing up
on the shaded path. In this way you arrive at the highest point and,
surprisingly, the top of the Profitis Ilias is nearby, on the left - the
view on the right, on the valley planted with oak trees, is equally
beautiful. A little further on you reach the gravel road that runs to
the top.
You continue straight ahead [3], but very soon the old trail continues
again while you keep to the right. The pavement is still beautiful,
except at the very end, just before you arrive at the asphalt road.
[If you would like to divide hike [3] in 2 parts, you should do so over
here, because you will now have to follow the asphalt road for 24
minutes. You can return the same way you came, but it is also possible
to follow the asphalt road some 700 metres to the right and then you
should take the gravel road off the right in the direction of Agios
Nikólaos.
Past the chapel, hike
[9] takes a right, and via Kalogerádos and Thólos this hike will bring
you back to Ioulída. See the second part of the hike Ioulída - Thólos -
Kalogerádos - Ioulída.
(1h26)
If you would like to continue with the route of hike [3], you now have
to follow the asphalt road for 24 minutes. After some 2 minutes you
should NOT take the gravel road off the left, obviously (this is the
start of walk [11] to the beach of Orkós), but you should stay on the
fairly horizontal, main road.
(1h50)
On the left of the road you go down on a small concrete road, but this
soon turns into a beautiful, stony trail – this continues almost
horizontally and steadily. To the left you have a nice view on the
valley, with the small island of Makrónissos in the sea and also the
main land. Slightly more to the right you notice the nice cone of the
Agios Simeoón. Some 11 minutes later you reach a beautiful spot, at the
chapel of Agii Anárgyri, with a well and a washing place.
(2h01)
You walk on concrete for one minute, but then you keep to the left and
the trail becomes beautiful again. After 2 minutes you keep to the right
and another 3-4 minutes later you reach a nice staircase, which
zigzaggingly gets to a gravel road. The path on the left (NOT the gravel
road) is one of the hiking possibilities to the small beach of Agios
Fílippos, but hike
[3] follows the gravel road to the right
(2h08)
You follow the gravel road for about 11-12 minutes and just before this
road gets to the asphalt road, you find a monopáti going up on the right
[3]. After 3-4 minutes, though, also this path gets to the asphalt road,
not far away from the crossing known as Loúros. Just opposite, you see
another narrow gravel road– you now will follow this road for about 1
km. At the end, after some 16 minutes, the slope gets steeper, you get
to some concrete and then you have to watch out: just before a farm and
just where the concrete ends you notice a path to the left – there is no
mark. This is a beautiful trail, which turns into a staircase later on;
after a flat part you arrive at the asphalt road again.
The paved monopáti south of Elliniká.
(2h43)
You follow the road to the right, obviously.
About 5 minutes further on you can see two
trails on the left, at a small blue chapel; the right-hand trail, to the
left of a house, goes to Agios Fílippos.
[This branch of hike
[8] is probably the best and definitely the shortest
hiking route to the deserted beach.]
(2h59)
After 11 minutes of asphalt road, you should NOT take the gravel road on
the left to Agios Simeoón, but you keep following the asphalt road going
up on the right. This road does get narrower at this point and after
another 8 minutes it ends in a gravel road between walls, which you
follow straight ahead. |
(3h12)
After 5 minutes and 100 meters past a chapel [3], this road narrows into
a stony path between nice walls [3]. The sign says that it is still 55
minutes to Karthéa.
The beginning of your path to Karthéa.
(3h18)
After 6-7 minutes, you keep to the right (red dot); on the left, there
is another broad path. Over there you can also see a picturesque little
chapel with behind it a well and a little further a beautiful alóni
(threshing floor). So you walk straight ahead, now on a gradually
descending path, between the deep and beautiful valley on the right and
a nice wall on the left.
The easy and marvellous path to Karthéa.
(3h30)
The path narrows and after a steep stretch, on a narrower and rockier
monopáti, you descend more gradually on a beautiful gravel path - you
already have a nice view of the bay and the temple. You pass next to a
beautiful tree and then the path becomes wider again. After another 8
minutes, you get a magnificent view of the double bay, with the small
island in front of it, and also of the temple site and the islands of
Kýthnos and Sérifos.
Panoramic view on the little bays of Póles, underneath Karthéa. The old pavement... (3h43) After another 6 minutes you begin to descend steeply, with a nice view of the retaining wall of the temple. View on the temple of Athena and the retaining wall.
At the end the path describes a few steep turns and then you end up in
the valley.
(3h49)
You continue walking midst the greenery to the middle of the valley and
then you bend to the left twice. You now continue in the bed of the
river (in Spring and Summer between oleanders). In this way you arrive
at the first beach. (3h54) On the right of the beach, there is a path between walls that leads to the first temple - note the ancient retaining wall. After 2 minutes it goes up on the right, through a little metal gate, to the platform of the first temple, dedicated to Apollo. You walk through the scarce remains of what was once a temple of 31 to 16 meters, that was built in 530 BC. The ground-plan has been beautifully restored and a sign gives some explanations. A cavity in the rocks contained a statue of Apollo, found in 1811.
Remains of the temple of Apollo.
You can continue to the temple of Athena.
At the end of the terrace a path continues to the upper temple of Athena, via
steps underneath the wonderful retaining wall. On the second plateau you first discover the
remains of the Propylaea (a kind of gatehouse from the 5th century BC)
and other Doric buildings. A little bit further to the right are the
remains of the temple of Athena, a Doric temple from the Late Archaic
Period (500 BC). The temple measured 12 to 23.2 meters, with 6 columns
on the short and 11 on the long side. The foundations are still visible,
as well as the "cella" or inner room of the temple. The basis
of the old pillars on the long left side is fairly well preserved, some
columns are (partly) restored. You also see the remains of the sewerage
and also 1 original Doric capital (on the left under a shed).
The remains of the temple of Athena in Karthéa.
From the Propylaea (near the sign with explanations) you descend to the right
along the old road to the second beach. You pass the map of the old Karthéa
where more information is given: the city continued to exist from the 8th
century BC to the 7th century AD and at the height of its glory the city had
1500 inhabitants. The first excavations began in 1811, led by the Dane P.
Brönsted.
The ancient theatre.
(4h05)
At the beautiful beach there are 2 little houses for the archaeologists
and you also notice the chapel of the Panagía toon Póloon (date 1887).
You can picnic in the shade at a stone table with benches. Far away, to
the south east, lies the island of Kýthnos. (3h54)
[In the middle of the beach, there are hiking signs “"Stavroudáki 55' /
Chavouná 50' / Káto Meriá 2h10".]
Views on the second beach of Póles. [For the return
route you still have to hike a fair distance. The best thing to do is to
take the trail to Stavroudáki, hike [6], which begins on the right
of the chapel, in the stony bed of the river. For this trajectory, see
my hike Karthéa - Stavroudáki.] Gpx-files:
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