Ios

Ios town

The Port of Ios is at the head of the Ormos harbour in the northwest. There is a path up the nearby hill to Chora, the Greek word on every island for the main village. Chora is a white and cycladic village, full of stairs and narrow paths that make it inaccessible for cars of any kind. Today, the main path through this village is completely taken over by tourism in terms of restaurants, boutiques, bars and discothèques. Apart from the port and the village of Chora, Ios has a few small settlements, just a group of spread out houses in the background of major beaches (Theodoti, Kalamos, Manganari). Since the 1990s, the island mayor Pousseos has worked on Ios' development towards attracting different types of tourists. With the help of European Community funds some roads have been built, all of them paved, and a scenic amphitheatre was created by the German architect Peter Haupt at the top of the village hill.

According to Plutarch it is thought that the name has derived from the Ancient Greek word for violets "Ία"(Ia) because they were commonly found on the island[7] and it is the most accepted etymology. Others say that the name is derived from Phoenician word iion, meaning “pile of stones” but Pliny the Elder writes that the name comes from the Ionians which lived in the island.[8] In the Ottoman period the island was called Anza or Aina, and its present name was officially established in the 19th century after over 2000 years of usage. During the ancient times the island was also called "Φοινίκη" (Phiniki), named after and by the Phoenicians and in the 3rd century, when the island joined League of the Islanders was probably temporarily named Arsinoe after the wife of Ptolemy II[9][7] Today the inhabitants of the Cycladic Islands call the island Nio, a name deriving from the Byzantine Era.[10] The name Little Malta, which is found in texts of travelers during the Ottoman domination, is related to the permanent presence of pirates on the island.[2] In languages with Latin script, the island name is Nio or Io.

A 1420 map of the island where the name Nio is used

The shape of Ios resembles a rectangle, with an average side size of 15 km (9.3 mi) and 7 km (4.3 mi) respectively. The longest axis is in the NW direction, from the Karatza cape to the Achlades Peninsula and is 17.5 km (10.9 mi) long, while the longest axis, in the AD direction, is 14 km (8.6 mi) long. Ios has 86 km (53.4 mi) of coastline, of which 32 km (19.9 mi) re sandy beaches.[11]

The highest elevation (723 m, 2372 ft) is the Kastro (Greek: Κάστρο) peak also called Pyrgos (Greek: Πύργος), located in the center of the island, while around the Kastro are the next three Highest peaks: Xylodema (Greek: Ξυλόδεμα) (660 m, 2165 ft), Kostiza (Greek: Κοστίζα) (586 m, 1923 ft) and Prophetis Elias (Greek: Προφήτης Ηλίας) (490 m, 951 ft).[11]

Ios consists almost entirely of metamorphic rocks, on which lie limited quaternary appearances.[11]

According to the Greek census 2011 in Ios live 2084 people, 1754 of them live in Chora. From the 1940s to the early 1970s, there was a constant reduction to the population of the island. The main causes of this phenomenon are the migration movement, the epidemiological conditions of the time and to a lesser extent, the loss of men aged between 18 and 45 during the war.[11]

The island is famous for its local cheeses. They are mainly made in the municipal creamery using milk from goats or sheep. The most famous one is the "skotíri" (σκοτύρι), a sour cheese with the smell of summer savory. Popular dishes of Ios are the "tsimediá" (τσιμεντιά , pumpkin flowers stuffed with rice) and "mermitzéli" (μερμιτζέλι, handmade barley).[25]

In 1827 the local leaders of Ios wrote a letter to the revolutionary government of Greece requesting a school to open in the island.[26] During the 1850s the first school opened which housed a small number of students of all ages. The type of school that operated was called Skolarcheion (Greek: Σχολαρχείον) and was equivalent to an elementary school with some high school basic courses. Most students at the time didn't graduate as they helped their families in the fields and had to give up school. This resulted in a large percentage of illiterate children. The richer families sent their children to schools of the nearby islands. From 1936 the first elementary school was founded. In 1972 the first kindergarten opens and in 1980 the first high school that had some upper highschool courses. Today, in Chora operate a kindergarten, a highschool,a upper highschool and an EPAL highschool.[27]

Iakovos "Jacques" Bao (1828-1914) was one of the first teachers and head teachers of the island. His father, Ioannis was one of the authors of the 1827 letter and his son, Ioannis was also a teacher in the island[28][29]

Ios attracts a large number of young tourists, many of whom used to sleep on their sleeping bags during the 1970s on the popular beach of Mylopotas after partying through the night. Today Mylopotas beach has been developed to an equivalent mass package tourism resort like Platys Gialos and Paradise Beach of Mykonos.

Ios has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate with mild winters and pleasant summers. Similar to other Cyclades islands, there is an almost constant breeze from the north during summer, known as meltemi, which moderates temperatures.

• 
  Tomb of Homer
• 
  View of Chora
• 
  Chora
• 
  Odysseas Elytis Theatre
• 
  Windmills
• 
  Manganari Beach
• 
  Young Hippies on Ios during the 1970s
• 
  Western view of Ios
• 
  Eastern view of Ios

• Ios travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Municipality of Ios (in Greek and English)