Golfo de Corinto :: Comparisson reports

“At the back of the bay is Germeno fortress, the citadel of the ancient city called Aegosthena. At the back of the port, where you can anchor in 12 fathoms of water with the fortress on the right, there is a sloped pebble beach with a plain behind full of olive trees and surrounded by low hills and closed off by rocks. Ghermano (Porto Germeno) is a poor town, with some 50 inhabitants. On Sundays, the latter normally go to Vilia which is 3.5 miles away. The inhabitants own all the olive trees. With a boat they also own, they fish in the port, capturing large pen shell clams. They export a bit of resin and wood which people gather in Galixidi and Corinth, and nothing else.

   

Behind the plain we’ve mentioned is the fortress hill consisting of conglomerate rock. Behind that is a small valley with olive trees, carob trees and Judas trees [= Cercis siliquastum] along with three small houses and another transverse little valley connected to the first by a track. The fortress is made of conglomerate cuboids and is triangular in shape. Its base occupies the top of the hill, and its point reaches down to the beach.”

“On the opposite side, that is, the northern side at the back of Porto Germeno, a long limestone hill stretches out, covered in mastics, with rocky cliffs and a small green valley with olive trees. At the end of a deep stream bed, in the soil, we find a spring with mastics and turpentine trees [= Pistacia terebinthus] on the side. A dry-stone wall with a small rectangular door forms the entrance. Descending approximately 20 steps towards a rocky conglomerate cave, we find crystalline water at the end in what looks like a small puddle. Outside, some houses crown the rocks. One has a tile roof; the other’s is flat. Underneath the latter are two more houses on the beach, and there is another on the pine-covered hill off to the side. This hill is completely flat on top and covered in knotty, picturesque pines, though severely pruned to harvest their resin. Behind are the Kala Nisia Islands.”