Kalymnos, is a
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
island and
municipalityThe municipalities and communities of Greece are one of several levels of government within the organizational structure of that country. Thirteen regions called peripheries form the largest unit of government beneath the State. Within these peripheries are 54 second-level areas called prefectures...
in the southeastern
Aegean SeaThe Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
. It belongs to the
DodecaneseThe Dodecanese are a group of 12 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, off the southwest coast of Turkey, southward of the island of Samos and northeastward of the island of Crete...
and is located to the west of the peninsula of
BodrumBodrum , formerly Halicarnassus , is a Turkish port town in Muğla Province, in the southwestern Aegean Region of the country. It is located on the southern coast of Bodrum Peninsula, at a point that checks the entry into the Gulf of Gökova, and it faces the Greek island of Kos...
(the ancient Halicarnassos), between the islands of
KosKos or Cos is a Greek island in the south Sporades group of the Dodecanese, next to the Gulf of Gökova/Cos. It measures by , and is from the coast of Bodrum, Turkey and the ancient region of Caria. The island has both fertile plains and mountainous highlands with a population of 30,947...
(south, at a distance of 12 km) and
LerosLeros is a Greek island and municipality in the Dodecanese prefecture in the southern Aegean Sea. It lies 317 km from Athens's port of Piraeus, from which it can be reached by an 11-hour ferry ride .-Geography:The island is 74 square kilometres and has a coastline of 71 km...
(north, at a distance of less than 2 km): the latter is linked to it through a series of islets. Kalymnos lies between two to five hours away by sea from
RhodesRhodes is a Greek island approximately southwest of Turkey in eastern Aegean Sea...
.
Kalymnos, is a
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
island and
municipalityThe municipalities and communities of Greece are one of several levels of government within the organizational structure of that country. Thirteen regions called peripheries form the largest unit of government beneath the State. Within these peripheries are 54 second-level areas called prefectures...
in the southeastern
Aegean SeaThe Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
. It belongs to the
DodecaneseThe Dodecanese are a group of 12 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, off the southwest coast of Turkey, southward of the island of Samos and northeastward of the island of Crete...
and is located to the west of the peninsula of
BodrumBodrum , formerly Halicarnassus , is a Turkish port town in Muğla Province, in the southwestern Aegean Region of the country. It is located on the southern coast of Bodrum Peninsula, at a point that checks the entry into the Gulf of Gökova, and it faces the Greek island of Kos...
(the ancient Halicarnassos), between the islands of
KosKos or Cos is a Greek island in the south Sporades group of the Dodecanese, next to the Gulf of Gökova/Cos. It measures by , and is from the coast of Bodrum, Turkey and the ancient region of Caria. The island has both fertile plains and mountainous highlands with a population of 30,947...
(south, at a distance of 12 km) and
LerosLeros is a Greek island and municipality in the Dodecanese prefecture in the southern Aegean Sea. It lies 317 km from Athens's port of Piraeus, from which it can be reached by an 11-hour ferry ride .-Geography:The island is 74 square kilometres and has a coastline of 71 km...
(north, at a distance of less than 2 km): the latter is linked to it through a series of islets. Kalymnos lies between two to five hours away by sea from
RhodesRhodes is a Greek island approximately southwest of Turkey in eastern Aegean Sea...
. The island is known as
Càlino in
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
and
Kilimli or
Kelemez in
TurkishTurkish is spoken as a first language by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other...
.
In 2001 the island had a population of 16,235, making it the third most populous island of the Dodecanese, after Kos and Rhodes. It is known in Greece for the affluence of much of its population, and also stands both the wealthiest member of the Dodecanese and one of the wealthiest Greek islands overall. The
Municipality of Kalymnos, which includes the populated offshore islands of
PserimosPserimos is a small Greek island in the Dodecanese chain, lying between Kalymnos and Kos in front of the coast of Turkey. It is part of the municipality of Kálymnos, and reported a population of 130 inhabitants at the 2001 census....
(pop. 130), Telendos (54), Kalólimnos (20), and Pláti (2), as well as several uninhabited islets, has a combined land area of 134.544 km² and a total population of 16,441 inhabitants.
Geography
The island is roughly rectangular in shape, with a length of 21 km and a width of 13 km, and covers an area of 109 km². Moreover, on the north side there is a peninsula which stretches in a Northwest direction.
Kalymnos is mainly mountainous, with a complicated pattern. There are three main chains going from W-NW to E-SE, and a fourth one which innervates the peninsula. The coastline is very irregular, with many sheltered coves. There are some springs, one among them being thermal. The soil is mainly made of
limestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geologic record...
, but in the valleys there is a compact bank of volcanic
tuffTuff is a type of rock consisting of consolidated volcanic ash ejected from vents during a volcanic eruption. Tuff is sometimes called tufa, particularly when used as construction material, although tufa also refers to a quite different rock. - Volcanic ash :The products of a volcanic eruption are...
, relic of an ancient volcano, located near the village of
Kantouni. The island is mainly barren, except the two fertile valleys of Vathi and Pothia, where olives, oranges and vineyards grow.
Earthquakes are a frequent occurrence around Kalymnos.
Archipelago of Kalymnos
Kalymnos is neighbored by the small island of Telendos, which was part of Kalymnos, but after a major earthquake 554 AD was split and separated from Kalymnos by a strip of water (about 800 m wide).
Between Kalymnos and Kos there is the islet of
PserimosPserimos is a small Greek island in the Dodecanese chain, lying between Kalymnos and Kos in front of the coast of Turkey. It is part of the municipality of Kálymnos, and reported a population of 130 inhabitants at the 2001 census....
which is inhabited and, with an area of 11 km², is one of the largest among the lesser islands of Dodecanese. Near Pserimos lies the islet of
Platí, and about 5 km to the NE there is the small islet of
KalolimnosKalolimnos is a small Greek island in the Dodecanese chain, lying between Kalymnos and Imia, opposite the coast of Turkey. It is part of the municipality of Kálymnos....
.
History
Inhabited originally by
CariaCaria was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionian and Dorian Greeks colonized the west of it and joined the Carian population in forming Greek-dominated states there...
ns, during the ancient ages Kalymnos depended on Kos, and followed its history. In the Middle Ages it was
ByzantineThe word Byzantine may refer to:Topics directly related to the Byzantine Empire* A citizen of The Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
, and during the XIII Century it was used by
VeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy, the capital of the region Veneto, a population of 271,367 . Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area . The city historically was an independent nation...
as a naval base. In 1310 it became a possession of the Knights of Rhodes, and later (mainly in 1457 and 1460) was often attacked by the Ottomans, which conquered it in 1522. Unlike Rhodes and Kos, during the Ottoman period there was no Turkish immigration to Kalymnos.
On May 12, 1912, during the
Italo-Turkish WarThe Italo-Turkish or Turco-Italian War was fought between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy from September 29, 1911 to October 18, 1912.As a result of this conflict, Italy was awarded the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica...
, Kalymnos was occupied by Italian sailors of the
Regia MarinaThe Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...
.
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
took control of the island along with other islands of the Dodecanese until 1947, when the Dodecansese finally were united with mainland Greece.
Economy
Being mostly barren (only 18% of the land can be cultivated), agriculture played always a minor role in economy of the island, except for the valley of Vathi. The island is famous for its citrus fruits.
Kalymnos owed its past wealth to the sea, mainly with trading and boat building, but the main industry of the island was
SpongeSponges are animals of the phylum Porifera . Their bodies consist of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells. While all animals have unspecialized cells that can transform into specialized cells, sponges are unique in having some specialized cells that can transform into...
fishingSponge diving is the oldest known form of the original art of underwater diving, in order to retrieve natural sponges for human use.-Background:...
. Here the island was the main centre of production in the Aegean, and still now is a traditional occupation with related exhibitions, along with other local folklore, at three local museums.
Another industrial activity typical of Kalymnos was the production of painted head scarfs, which were the most original component of the female dress.
In recent times,
tourismTourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other...
has become important for the island, particularly for
rock climbingRock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up or across natural rock formations or man-made rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route...
. The island also acquired an airport, the
Kalymnos Island National AirportKalymnos Island National Airport is an airport on the island of Kalymnos in Greece. The airport is located a few kilometers from Pothaia , the capital of Kalymnos. It is also known as Kalymnos National Airport....
near Pothia in 2006 to better link the island with the mainland.
Since the beginning of last century there has been a very strong emigration abroad (in 1925 the population amounted to 24,000 inhabitants), especially to the USA and
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
. The cities of
DarwinDarwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 120,652, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...
and
MelbourneMelbourne is the capital city and most populous city of the State of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne city centre is the anchor of the larger geographical area and statistical division known as the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area – of which Melbourne is...
in
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, and Tarpon Springs in the USA house large Greek communities of Kalymnian descent.
External links