Kissavos
February 2, 2017
“In hidden parts, you always encounter many secrets...”
The plain of Almyros stretches out at the foothills of Othrys. The beginning of the history of today’s Almyros must be sought for in ancient Alos, the homeland of Achilles, close to today’s Kefalosi, to eventually be built, after numerous disasters, on today’s site, primarily to escape the pirate raids.
The history of Almyros begins in the ancient city of Alos (10 km from Almyros). Alos was an important and populated city, known for its port and its role in the Persian Wars. In the medieval period, the city of Dyo Almyroi grew, a little to the north of the site of Hellenistic Alos. After the Byzantine period, in order to escape the pirate raids, the city was rebuilt at its present location.
To the north of Almyros are the Phthiotides Thebes, or Thessalikes Thebes, as the ancient cities of Thessaly, located at a very close distance to each other, were known. The first was located to the north of today’s village of Mikrothebes Magnesias and flourished during the Hellenistic period, while the latter, also known as Christianikes Thebes, flourished in the Early Christian (proto-Byzantine) period, until the 7th century, and was located at Nea Agchialo.
The Zerelia lakes today inspire mystery and wonder.
These are two lakes with a circular shape that are located 4 km southwest of the city of Almyros and 2.5 km from the farming village of Evxeinoupolis, at an altitude of 130 meters above sea level, in the northern foothills of Othrys.
To the east of the large lake there is a small hillock (Magoula). A prehistoric settlement has been found here, which was first inhabited in the early Middle Neolithic period (5,800-5,300 BC) and continued to be inhabited in the Bronze Age and historical period.
The peculiarity of the lakes is due to their meteorite origins: they are twin craters formed when a meteorite crashed into the earth in the Holocene period 12,500- 8,000 years ago and the size of the colliding fragments has been estimated as being between 10 to 30 meters long. These lakes are the only ones of their kind in Greece. There are no more than 40 similar cases in Europe and 178 over the whole planet. The site is also of exceptional interest archaeologically, as is the prehistoric habitation in the region of Magoula-Zerelia, the wetland with the two characteristic lakes, as well as its relationship in the Neolithic period with neighboring Karatzantagli.
In the Archaeological Museums of Almyros and Volos you will discover the finds from the archaeological research that was undertaken in the region of Almyros, which cover various cultural periods and certify the human presence and development from the Neolithic years, the early historical period, as well as the archaic, classical and Hellenistic periods.
