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| info: ekathimerini |
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The Didima Caves are two large chambers that are believed to have provided shelter to Neanderthals some 40,000 years ago. The Neanderthals disappeared mysteriously in 35000 BC, to be replaced by Homo sapiens. The cave used to be one giant chamber but the roof collapsed thousands of years ago, leaving two massive holes, as though punched into the Earth by a meteorite.
The first of the caves can be seen from the bottom of the hill after the dirt track and is used by a shepherd to shelter his flock. On the day I went, however, the sheep were out grazing and the only sign of life was the birds that have made their nests in the small holes in the walls of the chamber.
The entrance to the other chamber is somewhat harder to find, as it lies inside an olive grove and cannot be seen from a distance.
The walls of the cave are very steep, but someone has made access easier by digging a tunnel with steps into the mouth that leads to the main part of the chamber. Here, two small chapels have been carved into the rock face; the southern one is dedicated to Aghios Georgios (Saint George) and the northern one to the Metamorphosis (Transfiguration of Jesus).
At this time of year around the caves, on the edge of the farmland and among the limestone boulders and wild shrubs, you can see colorful yellow tulips popping their heads up -- a wonder of nature as efforts to replant them anywhere else in the region have failed.
North of the Didima Caves is the beautiful, abandoned Avgo Monastery, whose name means “egg” in Greek and which is located a few kilometers west of the village of Pelei.
Local legend has it that the monastery got its name from two local women who had to sacrifice their children for a miracle.
The women came and stood at the base of the large rock where the monastery now stands with their babies in their arms. When she saw the forbidding rock, the first woman lost her nerve and suggested that she throw an egg onto the rocks first to see how hard they were. She prayed and crossed herself, and threw the egg, which remained intact. The other woman, a skeptic, convinced her to throw her baby onto the rocks first. The miracle was that the baby of the woman who had faith was unharmed and that of the woman who did not was killed.
info: ekathimerini - By Stefanos Psimenos
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