Reduced opening hours in Winter.
Out of hours, key available from Mayor or Town Council.
Karst cave.
Town Council, Tel: +30-2840-6121.
| Location: | 13km south of Antiparos village, almost at the top of a more than 200m high mountain. Regular bus from the quay in Antiparos once a hour. |
| Open: |
Summer 10:45-15:45. Tours every hour. Reduced opening hours in Winter. Out of hours, key available from Mayor or Town Council. |
| Fee: | Adults EUR 3. Tour buses EUR 3.50. Public buses EUR 1.10 one way. |
| Classification: |
Karst cave.
|
| Light: | electric. |
| Dimension: | L=95m, W=30m, H=25m. |
| Guided tours: | L=200m, VR=70m, St=400. |
| Bibliography: |
Shaw, T. R. (1992):
History of Cave Science,
pp 14, 142, 178, 180-182, 241, 244, 255, 275, 277 |
| Address: |
Cave of Antiparos, Tel: +30-248-61315.
Town Council, Tel: +30-2840-6121. |
| Last update: | $Date: 2010/05/19 23:23:50 $ |
| 1673 | Christmas mass, held by Charles François Ollier. | |
| 1700-1774 | some stalactites cut off during the Russian occupation. | |
| 27-SEP-1840 | visited by Otto, King of Greece. | |
| 1995 | electric light and new railings of stainless steel. | |
| 1996 | new road to the cave completed. |
On the small island of Antiparos, south west of Paros, an enormous cave descends 70m into the earth. Even in August travellers will feel damp and chilly as they descend the 400 cement steps into the cave. Famous visitors have carved their names on the walls, including Lord Byron and King Otto, the King of Greece in 1840.
On three occasions the French Ambassador at Constantinople, the Marquis de
Nointel, Charles François Ollier, celebrated
midnight mass here, using an enormous truncated stalagmite as an altar.
At its base is this inscription: Islanders claim that older inscriptions have been destroyed by overwriting by runaways who had been wrongfully accused of attempting to assassinate Alexander the Great and were hiding in fear of retribution. Another famous visitor was Joseph Pitton de Tourenefort, Professor of Botany at the Jardin du Roi in France. He visited the cave in August 1700 and described the speleothems as growing like plants or vegetation. Boats from Paros take passengers directly to the landing stage on the shore below the cave and drivers wait there with donkeys for those who want a ride up the hill of St John to the cave's entrance. Or go to Pounda and take the car ferry across, a 5 minute ride. Text by Tony Oldham (2002). With kind permission. |
The old way to visit the cave was by boat from the harbour of Antiparos to the beach below the cave and then by foot or on a donkey 200m elevation to the cave. The boat ride is really pleasant, but the ascend to the cave in the hot summer sun was pretty tiring, especially on a donkey So in 1996 a new road to the cave was opened and it is now possible to reach the cave by car or coach.
There is a public bus which will regularly stop at the cave. Also there are busses by tour operators from Antiparos to the cave. And as far as we understood, the fee to the cave is extra. Unfortunately nobody from showcaves.com reviewed this cave until now, and the available information is pretty poor. There are hundreds of pages on the web about this cave and 99% seem to have copied the same leaflet. We tried to extract the few other links below.
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