Olymbos.

  The village of Olymbos is located in the northern part of the island
of Karpathos.

   Olymbos is described as a living museum, and in many ways,
Olymbos is still an open living museum, of architecture, ethnology, linguistics, musicology. It is also the most famous place for tourists
and the village is one of the few places in the world that is ruled by women.

Women over forty, still wear their colorful traditional robe, and seem
to be doing all the work, unlike men, who only seem to be eternally
involved in singing dancing and playing the lyra (local music instrument resembling a violin).

    It is certain that the village was named after the notorious tall
mountain of the mainland, Olympus, home of the 12 Gods of ancient Greece. This is because the village is built on the side of the equally tall
Mt. Profitis Elias.

The general region of Olymbos lies north of Mt. Kymaras and includes
the northernmost part of the island as well as the island of Saria,
which is agricultural in nature. Saria is separated by the mainland
by a straight of about 100m wide.
The region of Olymbos is comprised of mainly mountainous areas
totaling up to 37 km2 but many areas are covered with woods
or offered for cultivation and livestock feeding.

    Some of the mountains are Profitis Elias (720m), Orkili (715m),
Kymaras (700m), Stehoi (640m), Malo (635m), Koryfi (590m),
Oros (570m), Asia (540m) in the region of Olymbos and Pachis Vounos (630m) in Saria.

    Fertile land areas include the regions of Avlona, Achorthea, Pei (pronounced as "pay") and Koilios in Olymbos and Pyla, Ammoe,
and Nappa in Saria. Those lands produce olives and olive oil, grains, fruits, vegetables, and grapes, used mostly for making excellent local wine.

An interesting element of the local geography is the partition of the region by the sea. The region is surrounded by many natural harbors and bays which offer habitats for wildlife, sealife, people and their boats.


Diafani.

  The traces of Minoan settlement in the Cove of Cambi Bay,
the ruins of Hellenistic public baths in the Loutro (bath) site and the nameplace Palaia (ancient) are signs that the Diafani site has been chosen for settlement since the ancient times.

Because of the Arabic raids, the inhabitants of the region were also
forced to abandon their homes and take refuge in the mountainous
and hard-to-access nearby Olymbos which maintained a castle around
the central and highest part of the village.

  In the end of the 19th century, when the sailing boats of the pirates
were forced out by engine-powered battleships, the inhabitants
of the castle in Olymbos took heart and moved down to settlements
by the sea, just as the inhabitants of Korαki (village of Aperi) moved
down to Pigαdia (officially recently renamed "Kαrpathos" and capital
city of the island) during the same era.

The reason for moving to Diafαni is certainly not the fact that there
was an ancient settlement there. The main reason was that the bay
would serve the needs of the people who had to go to Saria
to cultivate their lands or establish trade with the surrounding islands.
The bay is the least exposed to wind and high waves and the closest
one to both, Olymbos and Saria.

  Diafani has experienced a dramatic development especially since after World War II.


Avlona.

  The rural and agricultural village of Avlona is situated north of Olymbos between Mt. Oros and Mt. Steoe (-oe as in boy).
It is built on the east ascent of the big and fertile valley created by those two mountains.

Avlona has been the center of rural life of the region for centuries.
We can still see about 300 farmhouses, (called "stavlos") characteristic
of the every agricultural type of a community. Each of the farmhouses
has its own facilities and accomodations for facilitating the life of the people and the processing and handling all aspects of agricultural life.
The stavlos of "Avlona" is a complex which serves the needs of its habitants/users. All the necessary work, such as threshing, winnowing,
and crop, seed, and straw storage can be done within the same establishment. It also serves as a stable for the resting and protection
of the family domestic animals such as horses, cows, donkeys, and/or pigs.

  The main products of Avlona are wheat and barley.
Upon completion of the neseccary processing, cleaning, and storage,
those grains are then taken to the Olymbos windmills where they are
ground and turned into flour.
Of course, not all grains are ground at the same time but a consume-as-needed approach is rather followed, so that supplies last throughout the year.

  In older times, and when agriculture and cattle-breeding in Olymbos thrived, almost all of the inhabitants of Olymbos and Diafani moved to Avlona for the autumn and summer months to cultivate their fields and collect their crops, respectively.

Those times, the whole valley throbbed with life.

Avlona is credited with supplying the necessary grains to feed the whole island of Karpathos during the occupation of World War II, enabling the survival of its population. When people in most regions of Europe were starving, Karpathos relied on mother land, and as expected, she took good care of her children when they needed it.