Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis with Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk. Credit: connect@epp.eu. CC BY 2.0/flickr
Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis recently met with Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk in Warsaw to discuss the future of security in Europe and cooperation on migration, with an emphasis on defending borders.
Cooperation between Greece and Poland
“For many reasons, our cooperation with Prime Minister Mitsotakis is always excellent. We can rely on each other,” the Polish prime minister said.
Donald Tusk said that both countries can have a positive influence on the development of European strategies on security and migration, adding that they would share experiences on effective border protection.
“Europe’s member states must protect their territories and control their borders by ensuring that migration policy is not chaotic or uncontrolled,” he stressed.
The Polish prime minister also spoke on the two countries’ common position when it comes to support for Ukraine, saying they were a good pair to work together ahead of the European elections, after which, he added, it will be easy to create new alliances and structures.
Tusk went on to thank Mitsotakis for his generous words regarding the contribution of some of Poland’s firefighters to help deal with fires in Greece last year, and said there would be cooperation for this year’s fire season as well.
The Greek prime minister said that the pair discussed the war in Ukraine extensively. “We are in the third year of this unprovoked and illegal attack by Russia against Ukraine. The impact is being felt in Poland. And yesterday to President Zelensky I had the opportunity to reiterate that we will continue our strong support to Ukraine financially and militarily for as long as it is needed,” Mitsotakis said.
He also made mention of the common challenges experienced by Greece and Poland when it comes to migration, saying “We have to defend our borders, which are also EU borders, and we have made progress in the European Council. It must be up to us who enters Europe and it should not be up to the smugglers.”
Speaking on the topic of defence, he shared that Greece and Poland spend well over two percent of their GDP. “We have to be at the forefront of defence issues in Europe. This may include some joint borrowing or other forms. It should be discussed after the next European elections,” Mitsotakis said.
He also stated that he and Donald Tusk are two leaders from the European People’s Party and can play an important role in Europe’s initiatives in the next election cycle, whether on issues related to defence and security, competitiveness and job creation, or the agricultural sector. He added that the green transition is necessary but it must be managed in a way that does not lead farmers to feel threatened.
Ruins of the archaeological site of Ancient Thera. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA-3.0
The island of Santorini, also known as Thera, is famous for being inhabited by the Minoans in the Bronze Age. It then erupted in a catastrophic volcanic event which completely wiped out the civilisation there. Yet, today, there are thousands of people living on the island. How did this happen? This article will examine how Santorini was resettled after the Minoan eruption.
How Santorini was depopulated
Santorini is a fascinating island in the Aegean Sea north of Crete. Throughout the Middle Bronze Age, Santorini was a thriving center of trade. It had several Minoan settlements on it, including the major city of Akrotiri, comparable in size to the Minoan cities on Crete.
The Minoans were the most prominent naval civilization of that era, so Santorini was evidently one of the most important islands of its day. Many scholars believe it was the origin of the legend of Atlantis.
However, this glorious existence came to a complete end in the sixteenth century BC. Some time towards the end of that century, during the reign of Ahmose I of Egypt, the island erupted. Santorini is a volcanic island, and the eruption that occurred in that century was one of the most catastrophic events in human history.
This completely destroyed the settlements on the island, blasting them into the sea or covering them with dozens of meters of ash.
How Santorini was resettled by Cadmus
After its population was completely wiped out, how did Santorini come to be inhabited once more? We can work out the answer by comparing the information provided by Herodotus with the information gleaned from archaeology.
Herodotus does not explicitly describe Santorini as being resettled. However, this is only because he displays no knowledge of the former Minoan dominance of the island. Nonetheless, he describes something related to Santorini in the context of Cadmus.
Cadmus was a Phoenician prince who traveled to Greece and introduced the alphabet to that land. The fact that the Greek alphabet ultimately derives from the Phoenician alphabet is confirmed by archaeology and scholarship. This occurred at some point in the ninth century BCE, meaning this must be when Cadmus lived.
Archaeological evidence
According to Herodotus, Cadmus and his men stopped off at Santorini on their way from Phoenicia to Greece. Some of his men decided to stay on the island instead of continuing on the journey. Thus, the Phoenicians were the ones who initially resettled the island following the Minoan eruption.
At least, this is what Herodotus tells us. Does the archaeology support this idea? As it happens, the very earliest traces of the Greek script are found on Santorini. These inscriptions are dated to the ninth century BC and are written in what is essentially pure Phoenician characters, although the words are Greek.
Most likely, these were written by Greeks who were traveling with Cadmus. Cadmus, already having Greek associates, would explain why he traveled to Greece in the first place.
Supporting this date for when Santorini was resettled is the fact that this is also the date of the earliest archaeological remains from after the Minoan eruption. In particular, the archaeological site called Ancient Thera is the earliest post-Minoan settlement that has so far been found. It dates to the ninth century BCE.
How Santorini was resettled by the Spartans
As we have seen, it appears that associates of Phoenician Prince Cadmus resettled Santorini in the ninth century BCE. However, Herodotus tells us something even more significant happened eight generations after those inhabitants had arrived.
Counting eight generations would bring us forward by about two centuries, assuming a reasonable average of twenty-five years per generation. This would therefore bring us to the seventh century BCE.
According to Herodotus, it was at this time that the Spartans arrived on the island. They were led by Theras, from whom Santorini got its name, “Thera.” Theras was a Spartan prince, whose grandfather Tisamenus was a child at the time of the Trojan War. Thus, although there were already some inhabitants on the island, Santorini was mainly resettled by the Spartans and became a bona fide Spartan colony.
Interestingly, archaeology has shown that the earliest evidence of Spartan presence on the island dates to the seventh century BC. This is exactly when we would expect to see it based on Herodotus’ information on how many generations Theras came after the time of Cadmus.
An engraving of the ruins of the Seleucid palace in Antioch by Louis Francois Cassas. From the book Voyage pittoresque de la Syrie, de la Phoenicie, de la Palaestine et de la Basse Aegypte: ouvrage divisé en trois volumes contenant environ trois cent trente planches 1799/1800″/Public Domain
Antioch on the Orontes, an ancient Greek city on the eastern side of the Orontes River, was one of the most glorious of all the Greek cities in the world.
Home to hundreds of thousands of people in its golden age, it was known as “The Second Rome” and subsequently “the Cradle of Christianity” before it experienced so many cataclysmic earthquakes and military conquests that it was reduced to a backwater.
Now called “Antakya” by the Turks, with modern-era buildings completely obscuring those from Hellenistic and Roman times, little is left of the glory that once was Antioch.
Founded near the end of the fourth century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, the city’s location benefitted it militarily as well as economically for centuries. Situated along the Silk Road and the Royal Road, it was a hub of the spice trade and grew in importance to eventually rival Alexandria as the chief city of the Near East.
Founding of the city by Seleucus I
The city was the capital of the Seleucid Empire until 63 BC when the Romans took control, making it the seat of the governor of the province of Syria. From the early fourth century, the city was the seat of the Count of the Orient, head of the regional administration of sixteen provinces.
Antioch was one of the most important cities in the eastern Mediterranean half of the Roman Empire. Dubbed “the cradle of Christianity” as a result of the pivotal role that it played in the emergence of the new religion, Antioch was where the New Testament asserts that the name “Christian” was first used.
The city may have had up to 500,000 people at its height, but it declined to relative insignificance during the Middle Ages because of warfare, repeated earthquakes, and a change in trade routes, which no longer passed through Antioch from the Far East following the devastation of the Mongol invasions and conquests.
An ancient settlement called Meroe pre-dated Antioch. Historians believe that a shrine dedicated to the Semitic goddess Anat, called by Herodotus the “Persian Artemis,” was once located here.
Now in the Louvre, this mosaic shows a Greek rider seizing the cap of an Amazon warrior. Roman mosaic of marble and limestone from the 2nd half of the 4th century AD; from Daphne. Credit: (User:Jastrow) CC BY 2.5
Third-largest city in the Roman Empire
After Alexander’s death in 323 BC, his generals, the Diadochi, divided up the territory he had conquered. Seleucus I Nicator won the territory of Syria, and he proceeded to found four “sister cities” in northwestern Syria, one of which was Antioch, a city named in honor of his father Antiochus.
Its fortified citadel was on Mount Silpius; the city was built mainly on the low ground to the north, all along the river. Two great colonnaded streets once intersected at the center.
In the Orontes, to the north of the city, lay a large island, and it was here that Seleucus II Callinicus began a third walled “city,” which was finished by Antiochus III the Great.
The new city was populated by a mix of local settlers that Athenians brought from the nearby city of Antigonia, along with Macedonians and Jews. The total free population of Antioch at its founding has been estimated at between 17,000 and 25,000, not including slaves and native settlers.
Antioch’s population reached its peak during the late Hellenistic period and Early Roman period; it would eventually become the third largest city in the Empire after Rome and Alexandria.
About six kilometers (four miles) west and beyond the suburb of Heraclea lay the paradise of Daphne, a park of woods and waters, in the midst of which rose a great temple to the Pythian Apollo. This was also the origin of the famous mosaic depicting a Greek warrior grasping the helmet of an Amazonian warrior woman.
Among its great Greek buildings was the theatre, of which substructures still remain on the flank of Mt. Silpius, and the royal palace, which was most likely situated on the island. At its zenith, Antioch enjoyed a reputation for being “a populous city, full of most erudite men and rich in the most liberal studies,” according to Cicero, who wrote about it in his work Pro Archia.
However, in a portent of its later fate, the first great earthquake in recorded history in the West took place in Antioch. The event was related by the native chronicler John Malalas. Occurring in 148 BC, it did immense damage, and it was only the first of many such quakes in the area which contributed to its decline.
Roman period was second heyday of Antioch
The Roman emperor Julius Caesar visited the great city in 47 BC and confirmed its free status within the Empire.
One of the most famous additions to Antioch, which most likely occurred during the reign of Augustus—when the city still had more than half a million inhabitants—was the hippodrome called the Circus of Antioch. Used for chariot racing, it was modeled on the Circus Maximus in Rome. With a length of more than 490 meters (1,610 feet), the Circus could seat up to an incredible 80,000 spectators.
In 115 AD, during Trajan’s time there during his war against Parthia, the whole area was convulsed by another enormous earthquake, resulting in an alteration of the entire landscape of the city. The population was then reduced to less than 400,000, and many sections of the city were abandoned altogether.
Center of Christianity
Antioch was a chief center of early Christianity for many centuries.
Evangelized, among others, by the Apostle Peter himself, according to the tradition upon which the Patriarch of Antioch still rests its claim for primacy, and certainly later by Barnabas and Paul during Paul’s first missionary journey, it was where the message of Christ was first heard by many.
Many scholars believe that Luke was a Greek physician who lived in the Greek city of Antioch. One of the Four Evangelists, Luke was one of the four traditionally ascribed authors of the canonical gospels.
The early Church Fathers ascribed to him authorship of both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, which would mean Luke contributed over a quarter of the text of the New Testament, more than any other author.
Barnabas, one of the prominent Christian disciples in Jerusalem, also resided in the city; Ignatius of Antioch, who died c. 140 AD, also known as Ignatius Theophorus, or “the God-bearer” was an early Christian writer and Patriarch of Antioch. He was martyred while on his way to Rome.
St. John Chrysostom, who lived from the year 347 to September 14, 407, was also from Antioch. He was so skilled in rhetoric that he was known as “golden-mouthed.” He later served as Archbishop of Constantinople.
A number of Greek, Syrian, Armenian, and Latin monasteries surrounded the city in its Christian heyday.
The Christian population was estimated by St. John Chrysostom at about 100,000 people at the time of Emperor Theodosius I. Between 252 and 300 AD, ten great assemblies of the church were held at Antioch, and it became the seat of one of the five original patriarchates, along with Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Rome, part of the “Pentarchy” of cities which governed the development of Christianity.
Simeon Stylites, who lived from c. 390 to September 2, 459, was a local man who lived a life of extreme asceticism atop a pillar for forty years some 65 kilometers (forty miles) east of Antioch. His body was brought to the city and buried in a building erected under the emperor Leo. His example of complete surrender to God was followed by many throughout Christianity thereafter.
Raids, massacres and sackings
In 256 AD, the city was raided by the Persians under Shapur I, and many of the people were tragically massacred in its great theater. It was recaptured by the Roman emperor Valerian the following year, however.
By the time the emperor Julian visited in 362 AD on a detour to Persia, Antioch had a mixed population of pagans and Christians.
Julian’s successor, Valens, who endowed Antioch with a new forum, including a statue of Valentinian on a central column, reopened the great church of Constantine, which stood until the Persian sack of the city in 538.
Antioch and its port, Seleucia Pieria, were severely damaged by another cataclysmic earthquake, which occurred in 526, in which an estimated 300,000 people may have died. Antioch’s glory days were now in the past.
During the Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602 to 628, the Emperor Heraclius confronted the invading Persian army of Khosrow II outside the city in 613. The Byzantines were defeated in the Battle of Antioch after which the city fell to the Sassanians.
In 637, during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, Antioch was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate during the Battle of the Iron Bridge. Antioch found itself so often on the frontlines of conflicts between two hostile empires during the next 350 years that the city went into a precipitous decline from which it never recovered.
The famous Skeleton Mosaic found in Antioch recently is believed to have decorated a dining room in the ancient city. Advising people to eat, drink, and be merry while they could, it now resides in the Antakya Archaeological Museum. Credit: Dosseman/Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
The Crusades and Frankish rule followed by Mamluk incursions
From 1233 onward, as a result of incessant warfare between the Crusader knights who ruled the city and various regional powers, Antioch’s standing as a city declined to the point that it barely appeared in records for thirty years thereafter. In 1254, the Armenian kings ruled Antioch while the prince of Antioch resided in Tripoli. The Armenians drew up a treaty with the Mongols, who were now ravaging Muslim lands from the East. Under their protection, they extended their territory into Aleppo to the south.
In January of 1265, Baibars, the fourth Mamluk sultan of Egypt, launched an offensive against the Frankish crusaders who then ruled the city, and in 1268, he besieged Antioch, capturing it on May 18th. While he had promised to spare the lives of the inhabitants, he broke his promise and razed the city, killing or enslaving nearly the entire population upon their surrender.
Antioch’s former Frankish ruler, Prince Bohemond VI, was then left with no territories except the County of Tripoli. With the fall of the city, the remainder of northern Syria eventually capitulated, ending the Frankish knights’ presence in Syria.
By the year 1432, there were only about 300 inhabited houses within the walls of Antioch, mostly occupied by Turks, according to historian Steven Runciman.
Archaeological traces of once-great city of Antioch
Few traces of the once-great Roman city are visible today aside from the massive fortification walls that snake up the side of the mountains to the east of the modern city, as well as several aqueducts, and the Church of St Peter (St Peter’s Cave Church, Cave-Church of St. Peter).
This latter church was said to have been a meeting place of the early Christian community of Antioch; it is still extant and is open for visitors unlike almost all the other monuments in Antioch. Most of the Roman-era buildings now are either buried beneath sediment from the Orontes River or have been obscured by recent construction.
Between 1932 and 1939, systemic archaeological excavations of Antioch were undertaken under the direction of the Louvre Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Worcester Art Museum, Princeton University, Wellesley College, and later, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University and its affiliate Dumbarton Oaks.
The excavation team failed to find the major buildings they hoped to unearth, including Constantine’s Great Octagonal Church and the imperial palace. However, a great accomplishment of the expedition was the discovery of high-quality Roman mosaics from villas and baths in Antioch, Daphne, and Seleucia Pieria, including that pictured above, which is now in the Louvre.
The principal excavations of mosaics at Antioch led by Princeton University in March 1932 recovered nearly 300 such pieces. Many of these were originally used as floor mosaics in private homes during the 2nd through 6th centuries AD while others were displayed in baths and other public buildings.
One such stunning mosaic includes a border that depicts a walk from Antioch to Daphne, portraying many ancient buildings along the way which were once extant. A collection of mosaics on both secular and sacred subjects which were once in churches, private homes, and other public spaces in Antioch are now in the collections of the Princeton University Art Museum and other museums.
A statue in the Vatican and a number of figurines and statuettes portray its great patron goddess and civic symbol, the Tyche (Fortune) of Antioch—a majestic seated figure, crowned with the ramparts of Antioch’s walls and holding wheat stalks in her right hand with the river Orontes as a youth swimming under her feet.
The northern sector of Antakya, the Turkish name of the city, has been growing rapidly over recent years. This construction has begun to expose large portions of the ancient city, which are frequently bulldozed and rarely protected by local officials.
In April of 2016, archaeologists discovered a Greek mosaic (above) showing a skeleton lying down with a wine pitcher and loaf of bread alongside a text that reads: “Be cheerful, enjoy your life.”
This unforgettable artwork is reportedly from the 3rd century BC.
Described as the “reckless skeleton” or the “skeleton mosaic,” it is thought to have decorated the dining room of an upper-class home in Antioch, advising all those who look upon it to eat, drink and be merry—for no one knows what the future holds.
It all began when one courageous chick suddenly leaped and landed in the water with a splash. Credit: National Geographic/YouTube
Scores of baby penguins bravely dove off a massive 50-foot cliff for their first-ever swim in the icy Antarctic waters below, incredible new footage shows.
Award-winning National Geographic cinematographer Bertie Gregory spent a frigid two months tracking the 10,000-strong flock of Emperor penguins on the Antarctic Peninsula when he captured the chicks’ never-before-seen behavior on camera, he told “Good Morning America.“
“It’s called fledging, when they take their first swim,” he said. “Normally they jump off of sea ice, which is 1 or 2 feet high. We were noticing that these trains of chicks were going past to a different place.
“So I launched the drone, flew it over there to see what was going on, and realized they were stacking up on the edge of a huge 50-foot ice cliff,” he continued.
A lengthy line of hundreds of newborn penguins can be seen waddling toward the intimidating cliff in the video.
The first takes the plunge dozens of young penguins follow
One courageous chick suddenly leaps and lands in the water with a splash, beating its defenseless wings as it descends. The others warily inch toward the edge. A few seconds later, the penguin is seen swimming safely on the video.
Taking courage another few chicks make the jump. Then a few more before dozens of the birds were paddling in the sea for the first time.
“They were falling and there were big chunks of ice floating in the water beneath them, so it’s like falling onto a chunk of concrete,” Gregory said. “But, to my amazement, they were not just surviving, but popping up and going, ‘I can swim!’ This is their first swim ever, the first swim of their lives.”
Gregory’s remarkable footage, which is the first time to ever show penguin chicks cliff jumping, will be featured in Nat Geo’s 2025 installment of its Emmy award-winning “Secrets of” franchise, “Secrets of the Penguins,” which premieres Earth Day 2025.
The emperor penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all penguins
The emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching 100 cm (39 in) in length and weighing from 22 to 45 kg (49 to 99 lb). Feathers of the head and back are black and sharply delineated from the white belly, pale-yellow breast and bright-yellow ear patches.
The only penguin species that breeds during the Antarctic winter, emperor penguins trek 50–120 km (31–75 mi) over the ice to breeding colonies which can contain up to several thousand individuals. The female lays a single egg, which is incubated for just over two months by the male while the female returns to the sea to feed; parents subsequently take turns foraging at sea and caring for their chick in the colony.
The lifespan is typically 20 years in the wild, although observations suggest that some individuals may live to 50 years of age.
The bronze fitting is measuring no more than 3 centimeters in diameter. Credit : Museum Vestsjaelland
Archaeologists have discovered a bronze fitting depicting Alexander the Great on the Danish island of Zealand.
The discovery was made by Finn Ibsen and Lars Danielsen, two amateur archaeologists who were conducting a metal detector survey near the city of Ringsted.
The object is a small bronze fitting measuring no more than 3 centimeters in diameter and depicts the face of Alexander the Great.
Alexander the Great fitting dates from the Roman period
According to experts from the Moesgaard Museum, the fitting dates from the Roman period and shows a deified depiction of Alexander with his wavy hair and ram’s horns, often associated with the god Ammon.
Alexander often referred to Zeus-Ammon as his true father, and after his death, currency depicted him adorned with horns as a symbol of his divinity.
Archaeologists believe that the fitting comes from a shield and matches a similar example found in a bog at Illerup Ådal. The Illerup discovery was ritually deposited alongside 16,000 objects, such as swords, bows, arrows, lances and shields following a great battle.
Freerk Oldenburger, an archaeologist at Museum Vestsjælland, said: “It’s fantastic. Up here in Scandinavia, you don’t usually find anything about Alexander the Great, and when you stand with such a small portrait in your hands, you get excited”.
How the bronze fitting ended up in Denmark
Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) was the greatest military commander of antiquity, whose empire stretched from Greece to India when he died in Babylon aged just 32.
Many hundreds of years after his death, he was still a legend, and he became a great role model for Roman emperors. Especially the tyrannical emperor Caracalla (emperor 198-217 AD) who saw himself as a reincarnation of Alexander the Great.
During Caracalla’s reign, a great battle took place at Illerup Ådal near Skanderborg in Denmark, where two Germanic armies collided. Many lost their lives in the battle, and the swords, bows, arrows, lances and shields left behind were sacrificed to the gods and placed in a lake.
The excavation of the lake was able to show shields that were decorated with small decorative discs with portraits of warriors.
One of these decorative discs bears a portrait of Alexander the Great, which is identical to the portrait on the newly found mount from Ringsted.
The head of a statue determined by archaeologists to belong to Alexander the Great was unearthed recently during excavations in north-western Turkey.
The marble head, dated to the 2nd century AD, was found at the top of a theater in the ancient city of Konuralp, near modern-day Düzce.
A sunbather on one of the many beaches in Rhodes. Credit: Greek Reporter
Rhodes, the largest Greek island of the Dodecanese archipelago, has lovely beaches that face the pine woods on the mountainsides, as well as a wealth of ancient ruins and beautiful historical buildings to explore.
The idyllic island still has many iconic buildings from the time of its occupation by the Knights of St. John during the Crusades.
The main city on the island of Rhodes has an Old Town, featuring the famous medieval “Street of the Knights,” as well as the castle-like Palace of the Grand Masters. Captured by the Ottomans and then held by the Italians, the palace is now a history museum.
The Old Town truly creates the illusion that you have traveled back to the age of medieval knights, with its medieval castle, stone-paved alleys, and stout walls all creating a unique atmosphere.
The fairy tale castles, as well as the nightlife, the friendliness of the local people, and lovely beaches make Rhodes a popular destination for vacationers.
We have compiled a list of the top ten beaches on Rhodes. However, feel free to visit and judge for yourself which is the most enchanting.
Agathi Beach, Rhodes is situated near a medieval castle
Agathi Beach, Rhodes. Credit: G.Gregorini/CC-BY-2.0
Agathi is a small sandy beach which lies on a scenic cove close to the Medieval castle of Faraklos and Haraki Beach located 10 kilometers (six miles) north of Lindos village and 38 km (24 miles) southeast of Rhodes Town.
The beautiful scenery of this area is complemented by rose-gold sands and turquoise waters. The beach offers sun beds, showers, and umbrellas, as well as three beach bars that offer refreshments and snacks.
Kallithea Beach
Kallithea Beach, Rhodes. Credit: Kishjar/CC BY 2.0
Found 8 km (five miles) south of the town of Rhodes, Kallithea Beach is well known for its hot medicinal springs, which were once exploited by the Italians but are no longer functional.
It is a truly breathtaking place, with beautifully-renovated buildings set among pine and palm trees, and there are Arabic-inspired mosaics at the springs.
The iconic beach of Anthony Quinn Bay
Anthony Quinn Bay. Credit: Michael Zer Mayer/CC BY 2.0
Located 20 km (12 miles) south of Rhodes Town, this well-known beach was named after the lead actor of the film The Guns of Navarone, which was shot there. The original name of the beach was Vagies.
The beach, which is considered to be amongst the island’s most beautiful, is the quietest beach on Rhodes. It is a rather narrow beach, with a combination of rocks, sand, and pebbles.
Ladiko, a scenic cove
Ladiko Beach. Credit: Pjotr Mahhonin/ CC BY-SA 4.0
Located on a lovely bay 2 km (1.2 miles) from the village of Faliraki and 20 km (12 miles) south of the town of Rhodes, Ladiko is a small beach featuring a scenic cove which is a delight to the eye, as well as a calm respite on windy days.
The seashore contains fine, clean sand with some small rocks, providing for a visually-interesting and scenic beach. There are ample beach facilities, and the beach is surrounded by lush vegetation.
Faliraki Beach
Faliraki Beach, Rhodes. Credit: Kraus/CC BY-SA 3.0
Located 10 km (6.2 miles) away from the airport and 16 km south of Rhodes Town, Faliraki offers a well-organized beach which is covered with a multitude of colorful umbrellas and sun loungers. Plenty of restaurants, tavernas, and beach bars from which to choose can be found nearby.
The beach offers water sports, including windsurfing and water skiing. The golden sand of the beach combines perfectly with the turquoise waters of the Aegean sea, which makes for attractive and relaxing scenery.
Located 19 km (12 miles) south of the town of Rhodes, Afandou is a long, spacious beach. A crescent-shaped village of the same name is located on the bay.
Afandou is a pebble and sand beach with many rental facilities and fish tavernas.
Afandou’s clear, sparkling waters remain fresh even during the hottest summer days, providing ideal conditions for swimmers. This beach is also a favorite of windsurfers.
Agios Pavlos Beach
Agios Pavlos Beach, Rhodes. Credit: Narvaleos/CC BY 2.0
The tiny bay of Agios Pavlos (Saint Paul), located close to the ancient acropolis of Lindos, lies 48 km (30 miles) south of the town of Rhodes. The beach features golden sand which forms a giant dune, pebbles, and plenty of sunbeds from which to choose.
The beach of Agios Pavlos was named after the white chapel, located right on the beach itself, dedicated to Saint Paul, who came to Greece and preached Christianity in the year 43 AD.
Pefkos Beach
Pefkos Beach is a pebble beach with soft, golden sand. A number of rocky coves, with ideal shallow-water swimming spots, are located at the very end of the beach.
Many shops, bars, and tavernas can also be found there. Indulge in a variety of fresh seafood by visiting any of the waterfront tavernas.
Located 36 km (22 miles) from Rhodes Town, Haraki is a very peaceful beach with crystal-clear waters ideal for water sports, such as scuba diving.
The cove provides a lovely landscape, and the neighboring beaches, such as Agia Agathi and Kokkini Ammos, are idyllic to swim in, while the rocks and caves provide opportunity for exploration.
Haraki has an archaeological history, as well. The castle of Feraklos can be found on the left side of the beach. This castle was the first fortress on the island and was used as a base of operations by Aegean pirates.
Located 65 km (40 miles) from the airport, and 50 km southeast of the town of Rhodes, Kalathos Beach offers soft, golden sands with crystalline waters.
Bamboo umbrellas and wooden lounge chairs may be had for just a few euros. Some accommodations are available near the beach while more can be found in the village of Kalathos itself.
Overtourism is killing us say residents of the Canary Islands of Spain. Credit: Wouter Hagens, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
Residents in the Canary Islands, a Spanish autonomous island complex in the Atlantic, have launched protests, including a hunger strike, in a backlash against overtourism.
Campaigners say the unsustainable influx of visitors is ruining life in the holiday hotspot. One activist group on the island of Tenerife has planned a hunger strike over the construction of two new hotels. Others report locals sleeping in cars and caves due to soaring house prices.
In 2023, the archipelago attracted 14.1 million foreign visitors, a record for the island group.
Demonstrators in Tenerife have organized a hunger strike next week over two new hotel developments. Authorities had halted work on Hotel La Tejita and Cuna del Alma in Tenerife’s Puertito de Adeje over environmental breaches but construction has recently resumed.
Canarias Se Agota (Canaries Sold Out) also plans to hold demonstrations on 20 April in Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and La Palma under the tagline ‘The Canaries have a limit’.
Canarias se exhausta (The Canary Islands are exhausted) is another key group behind the plans for the islands-wide protests.
“We in these islands have always been very welcoming to tourists. But we want more sustainable tourism,” Ruben Zerpa, of Canaries Sold Out, told the UK-based Independent newspaper.
“Tenerife is a small island with limited resources. The roads are overwhelmed with traffic, there is a hydraulic emergency going on and hotels are full.”
Overtourism on Canary Island increases rental prices
Zerpa added that tourism has forced up rental prices making it unaffordable for many local residents.
“I earn about €900 and live with my partner but the rent is €800 per month. That is Santa Cruz, which is not even one of the most expensive parts of the island,” he said.
Ivan Cerdena Molina, who is helping organize the protests, told local news outlet The Olive Press that locals are being forced to sleep in their cars and even caves as housing gets snapped up by tourism operators.
“We have nothing against individual tourists but the industry is growing and growing and using up so many resources and the island cannot cope,” he said.
“Airbnb and Booking.com are like a cancer that is consuming the island bit by bit.”
Greece faces a similar problem
Short-term holiday rentals have caused housing shortages and rent increases in cities around the world. The impact has been significant in many places in Greece, especially in Athens and the Greek Islands.
Anna Theodorakis, a local resident who was forced out of her home in Metaxourgio, Athens, recently told France24: “I think the answer is to go in the streets and block everything and just not do something because people are losing their homes. It is very depressing.”
Theodorakis expressed her concern over the rising number of Airbnbs, stating that they were “wiping out the traditional places” and lamenting that she felt like “a foreigner in my own country”.
For many families whose household incomes were battered during the crisis, the ability to take advantage of Greece’s tourism industry and make some extra money through rental sites has provided a lifeline.
But for those likely to be living in rented accommodation – such as single or divorced people, students, seasonal workers or doctors and teachers in temporary postings – these platforms’ popularity is causing housing shortages and pushing rents up.
In addition, a recent report by Europa Nostra warned overtourism in the Cycladic islands of Greece threatens their integrity.
The Cyclades, renowned for their unique charm and rich culture, find themselves grappling with a myriad of challenges it says are caused by unchecked construction.
Lions used to roam around in ancient Greece. Credit: Public Domain
Greek scientists believe that a cave near Vravrona, about 40 km (25 miles) east of Athens, was a hideout for lions and panthers which roamed the ancient Greek countryside thousands of years ago.
Fossils belonging to small and large mammals, including lions and panthers, have recently been unearthed in the cave by researchers. Other animal species identified from skeletal remains include wolves, bison, horses, bears, and deer.
Excavations in the cave began in the mid 1970s and continue to this day. Scientists say that the fossils found there date from a large period between twenty-five thousand to seven thousand years ago.
They believe that the cave was either a natural trap for animals or was perhaps a place where large predators, such as lions, would bring their prey to enjoy a quiet dinner.
Because most of these species became extinct in Greece such a long time ago, little is known about the animals’ possible ranges throughout the country.
Yet it is clear from not only fossils but also from eyewitness accounts that lions and big cats roamed the land in ancient Greece.
The ancient Greek myth of the Nemean lion
Lions feature very prominently in ancient Greek mythology and writings, and the most well-known story is likely the myth of the Nemean Lion.
This animal, which was believed to have supernatural powers, was said to have occupied the sacred town of Nemea in the Peloponnese.
The Nemean Lion was famously slain by Heracles, constituting the first labor that the Greek demigod was tasked with performing. It was said that the lion’s fur was impervious to attacks because it was made of gold, and its claws, sharper than mortal swords, could cut through armor.
Heracles managed to kill the Nemean Lion by strangling it, and he wore the lion’s pelt ever after.
Lions symbolized power and wealth for the ancient Greeks. Aristotle and Herodotus wrote that lions were even found in the Balkans in the middle of the first millennium BC.
When King Xerxes advanced through Macedonia in 480 BC, he reported encountering several lions.
The big cats, now only native to Africa and India, were once found throughout the European continent. Yet they became extinct in antiquity.
Lions were reported to have become extinct in Italy before the year 20 BC and from Western Europe as a whole around the year 1 AD.
According to historians, by the year 70 AD, giant cats were contained in northern Greece in the area between the rivers Aliakmon and Nestus.
By the year 100 AD, they became extinct in Eastern Europe, as well, and after that lions in Europe became restricted to the Caucasus mountains, where a population of Asiatic lions survived all the way into the tenth century.
Benjamin Netanyahu stands in front of American-made F-15 fighters on Thursday. Credit: Israeli Government Press Office
Fears are growing that Iran could hit Israel with missiles or drones in the next few days in apparent retaliation for the Israeli bombing of an Iranian consular building in Damascus on 1 April, which killed a top Islamic Revolutionary Guards general and six other Guard officers.
A strike would mark a dangerously significant escalation in a long-simmering war, fought until now by proxy, or by strikes in third countries, such as Lebanon and Syria.
The Israeli military said it was fully prepared for an incoming strike and multiple international actors warned Tehran against a major assault on the Jewish state.
Israel is “on alert and highly prepared for various scenarios, and we are constantly assessing the situation,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said at a press conference.
“We are ready for attack and defense using a variety of capabilities that the IDF has, and also ready with our strategic partners,” he said.
Israel would rely heavily on US-supplied weaponry in any response to an Iranian strike, a point that Benjamin Netanyahu made implicitly on Thursday, by standing in front of American-made F-15 fighters at the Tel Nof airbase in southern Israel to tell reporters: “Whoever harms us, we will harm them.”
The US said it had restricted its employees in Israel and their family members from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beersheba areas amid Iran’s threats “out of an abundance of caution.”
US in diplomatic push to avert Iran-Israel conflict
The Times of Israel reports that Israeli and US officials across various agencies have been in contact over the last few days to prepare for an attack they believe is imminent.
The US hopes that strong messages of solidarity and support for Israel from Joe Biden and the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, could still deter Tehran from seeking to hit a target in Israel.
Blinken spoke by phone to Chinese, Turkish, Saudi and European counterparts “to make clear that escalation is not in anyone’s interest and that countries should urge Iran not to escalate,” state department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Thursday.
Biden said on Wednesday that Israel could rely on “iron-clad” US backing, and Blinken called the Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, to tell him that Washington would “stand with Israel against any threats by Iran and its proxies”.
US officials say much will depend on the specifics of any Iranian attack. The Guardian reports that if Israel intercepts incoming missiles or drones, or if they fall harmlessly wide of their mark, the Biden administration will appeal to Netanyahu’s government not to act rashly.
If any Iranian attack causes significant Israeli casualties either on Israeli soil or at any Israeli mission or institution abroad, however, Israel would be entitled to a forceful response in the eyes of the administration, according to the British paper.
Greece is a very important partner of the US, Ambassador Tsunis said. Credit: Delphi Economic Forum
The US is committed to upgrading the defense capabilities of Greece, Ambassador George Tsunis told an audience at the Delphi Economic Forum on Thursday.
Tsunis referred to the Letter of Offer and Acceptance to the Greek defense ministry on Wednesday about the procurement of F-35s by Greece, noting that Greece is a very important partner of the US, as Greece supports NATO’s southeastern flank.
Asked to comment if Greeks should worry that Turkey is purchasing F-16s from the US, Tsunis said the neighboring country has had F-16s for decades just like Greece and what the focus should be on instead is the significant improvement in Greek-Turkish relations, as both countries are NATO partners.
In March, the US Senate overwhelmingly voted 13-79 against a resolution that would have blocked a $23 billion F-16 sale to Turkey that the Biden administration approved the previous month.
Turkey has sought to lock down the sale, which includes 40 new F-16s made by Lockheed Martin as well as modernization kits for 79 fighter jets in its current fleet for several years.
Speaking at the Forum, Tsunis also referred to the talks about Greece contributing to the production of US Constellation-class multi-mission guided-missile frigates. He said it was a great issue, and talks were sincere and serious, but there was no date as to when such a collaboration could begin.
US investments in Greece
In terms of US investments in Greece, the ambassador said that leading companies in his country had discovered Greece, while the country offered what US companies looked for, which was intellectual capital.
Speaking of the energy projects that are either ongoing or nearing completion in Greece, Tsunis said the United States saw the Vertical Corridor as key. He also said it was necessary to stop being dependent on Russian natural gas and to restrict that country’s ability to weaponize energy.
Russia’s energy exports allow it to invade sovereign states, he noted. With projects like the Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) in Alexandroupolis, the Trans Adriatic (TAP) natural gas pipeline, and the IGB natural gas pipeline with Bulgaria, Greece holds a key position in the efforts for energy transition and ending dependence on coal (lignite).
Among other issues, Ambassador Tsunis said there is no rift between the US and Israel over Gaza, and he called for united support to Ukraine in order for citizens to reclaim their country.
He also referred to the “Our Ocean Conference” taking place in Athens on April 16-17, which will bring to Greece leaders and representatives of over 120 states, and said the US embassy would attend the upcoming Europride event in Thessaloniki in June.
