Olympos, Karpathos

About this place

Olympos is a mountain village in the north of Karpathos, an island in the Dodecanese between Crete and Rhodes, about 26 km in a straight line north of Pigadia, the island's main town. Its houses, painted white, blue, yellow and pink, are stacked along a steep ridge high above the sea, with a row of old windmills along the crest. For centuries Olympos was cut off from the rest of the island, reached only by mule paths or by boat to the small port of Diafani below. This isolation preserved an unusually traditional way of life: many older women still wear the village's embroidered costume every day, and the local dialect keeps words that go back to ancient Greek. Visitors wander narrow lanes and steps between houses with carved wooden balconies, small shops selling local crafts and bakeries with traditional breads. Some of the windmills have been restored, and the views stretch over terraced hillsides to the sea on both sides of the island. Olympos is reached by a mountain road from Pigadia, about an hour and a half's drive, or by boat to Diafani and a short bus ride up. The village is free to explore, and it is quietest in the early morning before day-trippers arrive.