The sights of Chios

The Nea Moni Monastery. This famous New Monastery was founded in 1402 by the Byantine emperor Constantine IX Monómachos, on the spot where 3 hermits had found an icon of Maria. The architecture and the mosaics and painting are typical for the socalled "Renaissance" of the 11th century, the official emperial court-art under the Macedonian dynasty. For more information: see the Nea Moni button.

The Mastic Villages. The twenty mastichochória (mastic villages), in the south of Chios, owe their name to the profitable extraction of mastic that has been practiced here since the Middle Ages. In the 14th and 15th century the Genoese founded these villages far inland to protect them from attacks by pirates. They are all identically reinforced with corner towers. The evergreen, 1 to 3m high mastic bushes (Pistaccia lentiscus) on Chios separate an aromatic substance from that before the arrival of products based on oil, was used for paints, cosmetics and medicines (chronic cough and stomach pain). Nowadays mastic is used for the production of chewing gum, liquor and toothpaste. Each summer, some 300 tons of mastic are extracted from the bark.

These mastic villages are the only villages that have been spared from the massacre that took place in 1822 after a revolt. This confirms the suspicion that the massacre of Chios was commissioned by the harem ladies of the Sultan, who were so addicted to the chewing of mastic: the production had to be continued whatever happened. Pyrgi is famous for its brightly colored houses, many of which are decorated with geometrical patterns (xystrá), unique in Greece. Mesta is one of the best preserved mastic villages. It still has its original towers. The impressive Taxiárchis Church from the 19th century is the largest church of the island of Chios.

Chios City. The modern city of Chios (24,000 inhabitants) is the capital of the eponymous Greek island and department (nomos) Chios. It is located on the east coast of the island, which is higher than the same city from ancient times (of which little remains). Ionian settlers chose this place for once, because it easily from here to Little Asian mainland could sail, and not so much because it was good anchorage. Although the city is relatively new (few dates before 1881), there are a number of museums and other tangible evidence of the eventful history of the island. The Kastro (fortress) was originally a Byzantine fortress complex by the Genoese substantially rebuilt. The area inside the castle offered the Turkish occupying a secure residence the following centuries. It is the grave of the Turkish admiral Kara Ali ( "Ali Black") that the warrant alleged massacre of 1822 when he was killed when the Greek admiral Kanaris his ship destroyed. It is still Koraïs the library with its collection of more than 130,000 books a major libraries of the Aegean islands. This library has grown around the legacy of Adamantios Korais who failed his books to the island where his family originally came from. Near the village Vrontádos (4 km north of the center) is Daskalópetra or Teachers Rock, a rock throne with a circle of brick seats where the poet Homer was given instruction, but rather what the archaeologists recognize as a cult place for the eastern goddess Cybele. Not far away is the grave of the writer Ioannis Aris Psych. On the outskirts of the village Vavíli (7 km south of the center) is the 13th-century Byzantine church Panagia Krína, famous for its frescoes and beautiful architecture