Mountains - Hills - Grazing Land
The highest of the more notable mountains-hills are as follows (in feet from an English map and in meters from a similar Greek map respectively):
(1) Atsipoli ( - 267), from the Byzantine word atzipas, meaning guard, entrance to the town.
(2) Afanes afanos (1,260 - 403), from the name fanon-fotion, from the existing “viglatora-viglofilaka, from the word vigla (from the latin vigilia) meaning guard or sentry who used to warn the inhabitants when pirates appeared, sailing in from the sea.
(3) Thalia (880 - ), named after one of the nine Muses.
(4) Kastro (castle) (375 - either 115 or 187, with the former being correct), from the latin castrum.
(5) Kladi (branch) (1,671 - 331), because from this spot the viglatoras (sentry) used to shake a large branch as a warning of an impending raid by “piratese (piratis, meaning bandit from the ancient Greek verb pirao).
(6) Kochilas (2,500 - 792), named thus as it had the shape of a kochilas (sea-shell).
(7) Marmaro (marble) (Thirteen) ( - 394),named after the marble quarries that were present.
(8) Olympus (Limotani) (1,190 - 367),being synonymous with the well-known Olympus, the home of the ancient gods.
(9) Notos (Notes) (southern) (1,210 - 325), thus named because it was situated to the south of the village.
(10) Oros (1,050 - 316), from the ancient greek word oros, meaning mountain.
(11) Profitis Ilias (950 - 294), from the church situated here and which had the same name. As we mentioned previously, the highest mountain is Kochilas (792 meters) and is situated on the southern side. Kochilas is also called Panoftis-Panoptis (pan-optis, from “pan” meaning all or completely, and “opsome” meaning everything visible), because from its peak a person could survey the whole island and surrounding areas.
With an area covering 223 square kilometers, 30 sq.km.(14%) of the island is farm land, and 193 sq.km. (86%) grazing land - the latter including forests covering 31%. Included in the 223 sq.km. is an area of 38,880 stremmata (1 stremma is 1,000 sq.m. or about 1/4 acre), of which 38,280 is uncultivated grazing-land and the remaining 600 cultivated.
These 38,880 stremmata belong - by right, by right and by possession - to the sacred Monastery of Megistis Lavras of Agios Oros; this area was ceded to them by the Byzantian Emperors Nikiforos Fokas and loannis Tsimiskis.
This property, in accordance with the Statute 10/16-9-1926 (Govt. Gazette No 30) covering the “Charter of the Agios Oros” is absolutely inalienable as “divine right” (Art.181), and therefore it is possible only by law to alienate this property.
This applies especially to the monastery's property on Skyros, where the areas of Paliabela and Horafa create insurmountable obstacles to the island's tourist development.
Author: Napoleon Xanthouli with book "Skyros"