Antikythira

Antikythira lies in the wide, wind-scoured channel between Kythira and Crete, one of the most isolated inhabited islands in the whole of Greece. Only a few dozen people live here permanently, gathered mainly around the tiny harbour of Potamos and the settlement of Galaniana, and the island has no hotels to speak of, no bank and only a handful of places to eat. It is a destination for the genuinely curious rather than the casual visitor.

The island's name is known worldwide because of what sponge divers found off its coast in 1900. Among the cargo of an ancient Roman-era shipwreck lay bronze and marble statues and, most remarkably, the Antikythera Mechanism, a corroded lump of geared bronze that turned out to be an astonishingly sophisticated astronomical calculator, often called the world's first analogue computer. The mechanism itself is displayed in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, but the island keeps a small collection and an unmistakable sense of place.

Reaching Antikythira takes patience and luck with the weather. Ferries on the route between Kythira, the island and Kissamos on Crete call only a few times a week, and rough seas can cut the link entirely. Those who make it find a stark, treeless landscape of cliffs and scrub, superb clear water, and a night sky undimmed by any light pollution. The island is also a noted stopover for migrating birds, watched by a small ornithological station.

Life on the island is stripped to essentials. A single tiny shop, a scattering of rooms and the small taverna at Potamos are effectively the sum of its services, and residents rely on the ferry for much of what they need. Yet the rewards are real: empty walking trails across the scrub, sea so clear it seems lit from below, and a stillness that has all but vanished from the rest of the Mediterranean.

Antikythira is not a place for beaches and comfort but for solitude, wildness and a brush with one of archaeology's great stories. Bring supplies, allow flexibility in case ferries are delayed, and come in the settled months of summer. For travellers who value the edge of the map, few places in Greece feel further from the modern world.