A Poros boat trip is a sea trip to Poros, the small Greek island in the Saronic Gulf. It is one of the Greece tours that join a harbour town, an ancient sanctuary and the coast of the Peloponnese.
What is a Poros boat trip?
A Poros boat trip is a sea outing built around Poros and the sea beside it. The land there is very hilly and mountainous. Its municipality, meaning the local council area, also includes the islands and part of the nearby Peloponnese coast.
The land around a Poros boat trip changes from one side to the other. Bushy land covers a large part of the northern, far eastern and far western sides. The western and northern parts have smooth hills and shallow valleys. Small creeks and seasonal streams run through steep valleys in the south and northeast.
Ophiolites, limestone and Flysch-type sandstone are the rock types found on Poros. Limestone is a rock that forms from the remains of sea life. Flysch-type sandstone is made of pressed sand grains laid down in layers. Ophiolites are slices of old ocean floor that were pushed up and now sit on land.
The land behind a Poros boat trip has a central limestone massif, a large block of high ground. The massif has karstic sinkholes, which are hollows where the rock has dissolved. Limestone from Poros, an example of poros stone, helped build the round burial chambers called Mycenaean tholos tombs.
- Caves: Limestone caves on Poros hold stalactites, which are mineral spikes hanging down from the cave roof.
- Settlement: Archaeologists found the ruins of an Early Bronze Age settlement at Kavos Vasili in northeastern Poros.
- Fossils: Visible marine fossils, meaning traces of ancient sea life, are mainly found in the limestone.
No precious stones or ore deposits are known on Poros. Ore is rock that holds metal worth mining. Even so, the place still has a past written in its rock and its ruins. That past forms the background to any Poros boat trip.
What does Poros Town add to a Poros boat trip?
A Poros boat trip adds a town with deep naval history. Poros was the site of modern Greece’s first naval base, which was established in 1827. Naval means connected to the navy, which is the armed sea fleet that a country keeps.
The old base site still has a job today. The Hellenic Navy is Greece’s national naval force. Naval personnel still train at the old site, which serves as a training centre. Personnel means the people who serve in the navy. Any Poros boat trip here meets a naval tradition that is still alive.
Russian history adds another layer for anyone planning a Poros boat trip. The Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji gave Russia free shipping for its navy across Ottoman waters. The Russian station at Poros held stores for coal and food, plus a hardtack baking factory. Hardtack is a hard, dry biscuit made for sailors.
Governor Capodistrias took the Russian facilities for the Greek navy and offered the Russians a nearby cove. In September 1828, ambassadors of England, France and Russia met him at Poros to set Greece’s borders. Ambassadors are the top official envoys a state sends abroad; a cove is a sheltered little bay.
- Revolution: Poros played an important role in the 1821 Greek Revolution because of its strategic position.
- Writer: Henry Miller wrote that the arriving boat at Poros is squeezed into a narrow strait, or channel.
- Exhibition: A permanent exhibition called Shells from the Greek Seas is displayed at the Chatzopouleios Library.
The Czar, Russia’s ruler, granted the Russian base at Poros to the Greek Navy. But it never saw actual use. Poros Town therefore holds one active naval story and one that stayed unused. For readers who enjoy history, a Poros boat trip adds both.
What does Troezen add to a Poros boat trip?
A Poros boat trip gains a deeper past from Troezen, an ancient town made by Pittheus. He joined the cities Hyperea and Antheia into one and named it for his dead brother. Myth, theatre and carved stone all belong to its story.
Troezen became a setting for Greek drama. Euripides set his tragedy Hippolytus there, and a tragedy is a serious play with a sad end. In the play, Hippolytus is the son of Theseus, and his stepmother Phaedra loves him. Travellers who read about Troezen carry a human story into a Poros boat trip.
In the play, Hippolytus dies while fleeing the city. A bull rising from the sea attacks his chariot. A chariot is a light cart with two wheels, pulled by horses. Seneca and Jean Racine wrote plays on the same subject, also set in Troezen. The town stays central to each version.
Troezen kept customs tied to its stories. Before marriage, girls of Troezen dedicated a lock of their hair to Hippolytus. Myth links a spring in ancient Troezen to the place where Pegasus landed. Pegasus is the winged horse of Greek myth. Such details add depth to a Poros boat trip.
- Birth myth: In myth, Aethra slept with both Aegeus and Poseidon on one night and carried Theseus.
- Boulder tale: In the story, Theseus lifted the boulder once he came of age.
- Colony: Sybaris was a Troezenian colony, meaning a town settled from Troezen, founded in 720 BC.
Not every Troezen story comes from myth. A stele, which is a carved stone slab, was found in a Troezen coffee house in 1959. It shows the Decree of Themistocles. That find gives a Poros boat trip a firm link to real history.
What does Methana add to a Poros boat trip?
A Poros boat trip gains fresh background from Methana, a peninsula, meaning land almost surrounded by sea. The entire peninsula is volcanic, meaning volcanoes formed all of its rock. Over 30 volcanic eruption centres sit on it, meaning places where hot molten rock once reached the surface.
The top height in the Methana area is Helona Mountain, which reaches 740 metres. The municipal unit of Methana, meaning its local government area, covers 50.161 square kilometres. A square kilometre measures one kilometre by one kilometre. Readers planning a Poros boat trip can use both figures to judge the size and height of Methana.
Methana town had a population of 892 in 2011. A population simply counts the people living in one place. Methana town is home to half of the whole peninsula’s population. Readers weighing a Poros boat trip can read both figures as a snapshot of Methana.
The earliest known settlement on the peninsula, near Vathy, dates from 1500-1300 BC. BC marks years that are counted backward toward year 1. Thucydides, an ancient historian, tells of an Athenian force under Nicias. It walled off the Methana isthmus, a narrow strip of land, after defeating Corinth, another Greek city.
- Ptolemaic base: Methana became a base for the Ptolemies, a royal family ruling Egypt, and was renamed Arsinoe.
- Ancient visitor: Pausanias visited in the 2nd century and saw a temple of the goddess Isis at Methana.
- Growth: Methana’s population rose from 500-600 before the revolution to 1,349 in 1830.
The Methana municipal unit counted 1,352 inhabitants at the 2021 census, which is the official population count. Methana therefore adds a small modern community to the long history told above. That living community gives a Poros boat trip a local, human context.
What does Kalaureia add to a Poros boat trip?
A Poros boat trip gains lasting historical depth from Kalaureia. Kalaureia was an ancient sanctuary, a holy place for worship, with a temple of Poseidon. Its stones, old stories and written records let the past be read from real evidence.
The ancient writer Strabo describes Calauria as 130 stadia around and four stadia from the mainland. Calauria is another spelling of the name Kalaureia. Stadia is the plural of stadion, an old Greek unit of length. That written record places the island in ancient texts and gives a Poros boat trip firm context.
The ancient temple of Poseidon is Doric, a plain style of Greek building. It measures 27.4 by 14.4 metres. Its design has six columns on each short side and twelve on each long side. The temple was constructed mainly out of poros stone, a kind of stone used for building.
Archaeology suggests the sacred league was founded in the second quarter of the seventh century BCE. A league is an alliance, and BCE counts years back from year one. The island was once called Eirene, meaning Peace, in reference to the sacred league. That name adds a human story to a Poros boat trip.
- Story: An old story says Poseidon received the temple from Apollo in exchange for his share of Delphi.
- Oracle: An oracle, a message from a god, says owning Delos or Kalaureia is the same thing.
- Harbour: Strabo left out Troezen and Poros, which he considered the harbour of Troezen.
Swedish archaeologists excavated the sanctuary in 1894. Statue bases found in front of Building E led the excavators to read it as a bouleuterion. A bouleuterion was a council hall. Such finds give any Poros boat trip a firm link to real archaeology.
What does Ermioni add to a Poros boat trip?
A Poros boat trip gains real depth from Ermioni, a place with very deep roots in Greek history. People have lived there continuously since at least the times of Homer, an ancient Greek poet. That makes the settlement very old, and its record is long.
Hermione is the old form of the name Ermioni. The Dryopians, an ancient people, settled Hermione long before classical times. Classical times is the peak of ancient Greece. Anyone planning a Poros boat trip can add that early chapter to the story of the area. So the town is far older than that age.
In the classic era, Hermione was well known for its shipbuilders and for porphyra, a red dye. The porphyra dye coloured the uniforms of armies, including that of Alexander the Great, the ancient Macedonian king. These two trades show a town built on skilled work, from ships to dye.
Pausanias, an ancient Greek writer, saw no image in the sanctuary of Hestia at Hermione, only an altar. Hestia was a goddess of ancient Greece, and the word sanctuary names a holy place. An altar is a table for offerings. Such details give a Poros boat trip a richer story to tell.
- Size: The Ermioni municipal unit, a local council area, covers 168.180 square kilometres.
- People: The same municipal unit is home to a population of 3936 people.
- Position: Ermioni lies 22 km southwest of Galatas and 44 km southeast of Nafplio.
Ermioni’s ship building and naval skills played a significant part in the 1821 Greek revolution. Naval means linked to a navy, the fighting fleet of a state. That sea record gives any Poros boat trip a deeper background and a clear setting.
What questions come up about a Poros boat trip?
A Poros boat trip raises four practical questions. The first covers the airport and its two terminals. The second covers April, July and October weather figures. The third and fourth cover the older prefectures of the islands and the local municipality.
Which airport serves a Poros boat trip?
Two terminals serve the airport, the main one and a satellite one, which an underground link connects. It is approved for take-offs and landings of the A380, the largest passenger jet. On 13 April 2011, the first A380 visit there was a landing for a medical emergency.
Which season suits a Poros boat trip?
At the Piraeus Kallipoli station, the average April high, or daily top temperature, is 20.9 °C. In July, the Piraeus Kallipoli station reports an average high of 34.2 °C. Rain is counted in millimetres, and the Piraeus Kallipoli station averages 23.4 mm in October.
Which regional unit holds a Poros boat trip?
Aegina, Agistri, Poros and Salamis were once part of the Attica Prefecture, an older regional unit of government. The newly formed Piraeus Prefecture took in the islands, which until then belonged to Attica Prefecture. Hydra, Kythira, Spetses and Troizinia-Methana were part of Argolis and Korinthos prefecture until 1929.
Which municipality holds a Poros boat trip?
A municipality is the local government area for a town and its surroundings. The Poros municipality includes the islands and part of the Peloponnese coast near Galatas, Thermisia and Hydra. That coast lies on the mainland, since the Peloponnese forms the southern part of mainland Greece.