The ancient historian Herodotus described Naxos as the “happiest of islands.” It’s certainly hard not to have a good time on the largest of the Cycladic islands, with its antiquities, medieval watchtowers, mountain trails dotted with Byzantine churches, and miles and miles of soft, sandy beaches. Hidden in the hills are three marble kouroi―giant anthropomorphic statues measuring more than 35 feet long. Nobody knows why these 2,500-year-old statues were built or how they ended up there. Two of them lie snoozing in a shady lemon and oleander grove near Melanes. The third, unfinished kouros has been lying in a marble quarry near the seaside village of Apollonas since the 6th century B.C.E.
The ancient kouros abandoned by its makers because of flaws in the stone, at the Ancient marble quarries at Apollon Apollonas Naxos, Greece
Peter Eastland / age fotostock
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Kouroi at Naxos
The ancient historian Herodotus described Naxos as the “happiest of islands.” It’s certainly hard not to have a good time on the largest of the Cycladic islands, with its antiquities, medieval watchtowers, mountain trails dotted with Byzantine churches, and miles and miles of soft, sandy beaches. Hidden in the hills are three marble kouroi―giant anthropomorphic statues measuring more than 35 feet long. Nobody knows why these 2,500-year-old statues were built or how they ended up there. Two of them lie snoozing in a shady lemon and oleander grove near Melanes. The third, unfinished kouros has been lying in a marble quarry near the seaside village of Apollonas since the 6th century B.C.E.
