The Island of Karpathos

The beautiful island of Karpathos is located in the southern Aegean Sea, almost equidistant between the two larger neighbouring islands of Crete and Rhodes. It forms part of the island group known as the Dodecanese.

Its location has ensured that the ravages of tourism have had less effect on local traditions than on other, more accessible, Greek islands. Some consider Karpathos to be almost two islands, joined together only recently by the construction of a new road. Most of the tourism is located in the southern 'half' of the island.

The mountainous north is one of the few places in Greece where an ancient dialect can still be heard and traditional costume is still proudly worn by the local women, both young and old. The stories in this book originate from the people of northern Karpathos, in particular the mountain village of Olympos and its port village of Diafani. Being stories recounted by local people, some of the place names mentioned are known only amongst themselves and do not appear on commercial maps. To enhance the understanding of these stories, we've included the maps below showing some of those place names.