Gorgeous Kimolos lies just off the coast of Milos and celebrated by locals in song as their “paradise”.
Under Venetian rule, the island was known as Argentiera, or silver, because its terrain took on a silvery hue in the moonlight.
The island is dotted with small churches and historic ruins. It charms visitors with its volcanic rock and soil, the ageing charm of the medieval fortifications, and the harmony of its settlements. Severe rock, sandy beaches shaded by salt cedars, and small meadows that extend to the shoreline complete the landscape. Beneath the surface, the soil is rich with deposits of amethysts, opal, pearlite, kaolin, and quartz. The island’s sea caves provide shelter for the Mediterranean monk seal Monachus monachus while inland caves are habitats for a raw species of hawk known as the ‘golden owl’.
Local food specialties are eggs with capers, tirenies (small savory pies filled with manouri cheese), amarathenies (savory fennel and cheese pies), ladenia (dough baked with olive oil, tomatoes, and onions), limpets with rice, red mullet with capers, atherinopita (small sand smelts fried in olive oil with onions and flour), rusks with mastic tree buds (schinokokkos), ksino (sour) cheese, prickly pears, manouri cheese, and thyme honey.
