Kos Kefalos

Kefalos village, Agios Nikolaos islet, view Kos, Dodecanese, Greece ©Clairy Moustafellou/IML Image Group Kefalos village, Agios Nikolaos islet, view Kos, Dodecanese, Greece ©Clairy Moustafellou/IML Image Group

Kefalos is famous for its excellent climate. The village that stretches over a small hill at the westernmost point of the island is picturesque with old houses, narrow streets and a bird’s eye view of the Kefalos bay with the islet of Kastri in the middle of it. It is the most remote village of the island at a distance of 42km from the town of Kos. You can visit the ruins of the Knights’ castle of Kefalos on the hill and the traditional house in the village that contains exhibits from the rural life on the island. The location where Astypalaia, the ancient capital of the island, was situated is only 3km away from Kefalos, at the Palatia area. You will find the ruins of three ancient temples there. The first one used to be the temple of Asclepius, the second one of Demeter and the third one is a Doric order temple, but it is still unknown which god was worshipped in it. There are also parts of seats from a theatre of the Hellenistic period.

Info

Astypalaia was the capital of the island until 366 BC. In order to avoid a civil war between oligarchs and democrats, members of one of the two political factions decided to move to another place on the island where they founded the ancient town of Kos.

The cave of Aspri Petra, where findings dating back to the Early Helladic period were discovered, is located on a small hill only 2km away from the archaeological site.

Back to Kos