Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
9
THE WAR CEMETERIES
About 800m along the Roussopoúli road from Moúdhros is an unlocked
Allied
military
cemetery
maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, its neat lawns and
rows of white headstones incongruous in such parched surroundings. During 1915, Moúdhros
Bay was the principal staging area for the disastrous Gallipoli campaign. Of approximately
36,000 Allied dead, 887 are buried here - mainly battle casualties, who died after having been
evacuated to the base hospital at Moúdhros. Though the deceased are mostly British, there is
also a French cenotaph, and - speaking volumes about imperial sociology - a mass
“Musalman” grave for Egyptian and Indian troops in one corner, with a Koranic inscription.
There are more graves at another immaculately maintained cemetery behind the hilltop
church in
Portianoú
, a little over 1km from the west side of Moúdhros Bay.
Among the 348
buried here are two Canadian nurses, three Egyptian labourers and three Maori soldiers. East of
Portianoú and Paleó Pedhinó, signposted on a headland, lies the last and strangest of Límnos's
military cemeteries: about forty 1920-21 graves of
Kuban Cossacks
, White Army refugees
from the Russian civil war.
decent beaches are at
Havoúli
, 4km south by dirt track, and
Fanaráki
, 4km west, but
both have muddy sand and don't really face the open sea. Until recently Moúdhros was
quite literally a God-forsaken place, owing to an incident late in Ottoman rule. Certain
locals killed some Muslims and threw them down a well on property belonging to the
Athonite monastery of Koutloumousioú; the Ottoman authorities, holding the monks
responsible, slaughtered any Koutloumousiot brethren they found on the island and set
the local monastery alight. Two monks managed to escape to Áthos, where every
August 23 a curse was chanted, condemning Moúdhros's inhabitants to “never sleep
again”; the Athonite brothers finally relented in July 2001.
Polyochni (Polyókhni) and around
Tues-Sun 8.30am-3pm • Free
Traces of the most advanced Neolithic Aegean civilization have been unearthed at
Polyochni (Polyókhni)
, 10km east of Moúdhros, on a bluff overlooking a long, narrow
beach. Since 1930, Italian excavations have uncovered five layers of settlement, the
oldest from late in the fourth millennium BC, predating Troy on the Turkish coast
opposite. The town met a sudden, violent end from war or earthquake in about 2100
BC. he
ruins
are well labelled but mostly of specialist interest, though a small,
well-presented
museum
behind the entrance helps bring the place to life.
The only really decent beach in the area is
Ayía Triádha
, accessed off the Polyókhni
road, with blonde sand heaped in dunes.
Kótsinas
Some 10km north of Moúdhros, reached via Repanídhi, the hard-packed beach at
KÓTSINAS
is set in the proteted western limb of Bourniá Bay. The nearby anchorage
offers two busy, seafood-strong tavernas. On a knoll overlooking the jetty stands a
corroded, sword-brandishing statue of
Maroula
, a Genoese-era heroine who briefly
delayed the Ottoman conquest, and a large church of
Zoödhóhou Piyís
(the Life-Giving
Spring), with intriguing kitsch icons, a vaulted wooden ceiling and antique floor tiles.
Out front, 63 steps lead down through an illuminated tunnel in the rock to the potable
(if slightly mineral) spring in question, oozing into a cool, vaulted chamber.
Kerós beach
Kalliópi
, 8km northeast of Moúdhros via attractive Kondopoúli, is a pleasant little
village, giving direct access to
Kéros beach
, a 1.5km stretch of sand with dunes and a
small pine grove, plus shallow water. It remains popular despite being exposed and
often dirty, and attracts plenty of windsurfers and foreigners with camper vans.
