Cykladean "pezoules"

Cykladean "pezoules"

Greece
Aegean Sea
Cyklades
Sifnos and "pezoules"

Peter Ustinov, who was a regular visitor and passionate admirer of Cyklades, once said that"...talking about the beauty of Cyklades is a...perversion! It's like admiring a stone on your desk... And you will definitely agree that this is true, once you get detached from the charm of sea and beaches and you decide to sneak a bit farther in the interior of the islands where trees,grass and whatever green is so scarse as hair in a bald skull. Volcanic earth, cliffs, rocks and stones,to almost all of them.Together with old churches, monasteries, mills and castles...But, just that is also their beauty that makes them unique...A beauty for writters,painters,poets,photographers....It is there that history, tradition, nature and a struggling human presence all mingled together to curve a powerful and long living trace on the bare land.
But we can't forget that Cyklades are not only for tourists but also for locals living permanently there.Locals that are obliged to get as much as possible from that bare and dry land so little fertile in order to cover their bare necessities. So they invented the "pezoules", ie they tried to flatten and exploit as much as possible those rocky surfaces, the steep cliffs, even the mountain sides. The spectacle of these "pezoules" seen from the heights in some islands like Sifnos is very interesting.

In the photo "pezoules" in the island of Sifnos,one of the most beautiful among Cyklades.I took the picture from a height and one can see three levels. On the first is the road, on the second extend the "pezoules" to the far end, and then is a steep cliff that goes down to the shore.