Prehistoric Thassos reaches back tens of thousands of years, long before the marble city of the classical age rose on the northern coast. Deep beneath the hills near Limenaria, miners of the Old Stone Age cut galleries into the rock to reach red ochre, leaving one of the oldest underground mines known in Europe. Farmers … Read more
The Monument of Glaukos stands in the ancient agora of Thassos, a plain marble memorial that carries one of the oldest Greek inscriptions ever found. The block names Glaukos, son of Leptines, a warrior and companion of the poet Archilochos who helped the Parians settle the island in the early seventh century BC. Few objects … Read more
Evraiokastro in Thassos is a low rocky headland that juts into the sea beside the old harbour of Limenas, the main town of the island. Ruins of a large Early Christian basilica of the fifth and sixth centuries AD crown its summit, while the sacred deposits of an ancient sanctuary lie buried at its foot. … Read more
The Sanctuary of Dionysos in Thassos, known in antiquity as the Dionysion, honoured the god of wine, theatre and ecstatic release beside the great stone auditorium of the ancient city. Dionysos held a natural claim on Thassos, an island grown rich on the export of famous wine across the northern Aegean. His compact precinct rose … Read more
The Sanctuary of Poseidon in Thassos crowned the maritime quarter of the ancient island city, where the sea-god guarded the harbours, the fleet and every sailor who put out from the port. Poseidon ruled the waves that carried Thasian marble, gold and wine across the northern Aegean, and his precinct rose on level ground beside … Read more
Thassos shopping rewards travellers who want to carry the island home in a jar, a bottle or a block of stone. Market stalls and family shops here sell the same olive oil, honey and wine that fill the local table, alongside marble crafts and herbal soap made from island plants. The port town of Limenas … Read more
Apokries, the Greek pre-Lenten carnival, wakes Thassos from its winter quiet with three weeks of feasting, masks and satire. The season opens well before spring, filling village squares with costumed revellers and the smell of grilled meat. Households across the island mark each stage of the countdown to Lent, from the meat feasts of the … Read more
A Thassos jeep safari packs the wild interior of the island into a single guided day, trading the tarmac for rough mountain tracks in an open 4×4. A driver-guide takes the wheel while passengers ride along, so nobody navigates the loose quarry roads or the steep forest climbs alone. The convoy of jeeps leaves the … Read more
Quad and ATV rental in Thassos hands a visitor the keys to a self-drive buggy that reaches beaches, forest tracks and mountain villages a coach never touches. Rental shops cluster in the resorts of the south and west coast, renting 125cc to 350cc quads, ATVs and scooters by day or week. A quad climbs the … Read more
The Sanctuary of Artemis in Thassos, known to archaeologists as the Artemision, ranks among the oldest cult sites of the ancient island city and one of its richest. Artemis watched over Thasian women, guarded the young and protected the wider polis from a walled precinct near the heart of Limenas. Worshippers left ivories, gold jewellery, … Read more