Author Topic: Damn shame  (Read 5942 times)

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Offline Maik

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Damn shame
« on: Wednesday, 15 October, 2014 @ 17:54:21 »
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Amazing aerial footage has emerged of a village in Crete, Greece which has been deliberately sunk in an artificial water reservoir.

The controversial Aposelemi dam project, which should solve a water supply problem in Heraklion and other cities in Crete, requires that the medieval village of Sfendyli be almost completely submerged.

In the footage, captured by a local resident using a drone on Monday, roads suddenly lead to nowhere and the tops of houses can just be seen from the surface of the water.

The beautiful village, which was home to around 80 people, also had a Byzantine 14th century church which was decorated with historic murals of the Fokas brothers.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/viral-video/11163588/Greek-village-deliberately-submerged-in-reservoir.html



Offline Aristarches

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Re: Damn shame
« Reply #1 on: Wednesday, 15 October, 2014 @ 19:02:58 »
What a pity!  I can think of plenty of  villages on the north east coat from Heraklion to Ag. Nik that should be drowned along with the people in them.

Offline Maik

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Re: Damn shame
« Reply #2 on: Thursday, 16 October, 2014 @ 12:21:54 »
Bye 'eck, Ari, you might be getting older but you've not lost that delicate way with words!

Another interesting story from Crete:

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Giorgos Koutentakis could never have imagined that one day he’d be able to return to his family home. It was, after all, in complete ruins. The roof had collapsed into a pile of tiles and the walls had become home to dozens of crows. Like every other family in the village of Ethia on the Asterousia Mountains in Iraklio, Crete, his had left decades ago. Over the years, their houses started to crumble and the village population, which had once numbered in the hundreds, dwindled to single digits.

You can’t count on signposts to find Ethia – there are none. The first traces of the village lie some 50 kilometers outside Iraklio, over a freshly tarred road leading from the hamlet of Rotasi. Ethia is one of Greece’s southernmost settlements and just above it, the hills overlook the Libyan Sea.

Ethia is much like other villages strewn across the country. According to a survey conducted in 2011 by the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), there are 6,356 villages around the country with populations ranging between one and 100 residents.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite6_1_12/10/2014_543641

Offline Aristarches

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Re: Damn shame
« Reply #3 on: Thursday, 16 October, 2014 @ 14:28:01 »
Perhaps one day  we will rebuild Katelios after the depredations of all inclusive hotels and glamping!

I have driven through the White Mountains and there are many little villages scattered about which, at that time, were just about surviving.  I have always considered them to be a potential tourist attraction for those who have eschewed the dubious pleasures of the pool and beach.

Offline TonyKath

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Re: Damn shame
« Reply #4 on: Friday, 17 October, 2014 @ 17:13:37 »
Actually, from the vid it looks like most of the village is on higher ground well above the water, including the church and some nice older buildings.  The inundated stretch only includes a few modern buildings, possibly from a farm.

Tony

Offline Maik

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Re: Damn shame
« Reply #5 on: Friday, 19 February, 2016 @ 10:34:11 »
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The village of Sfentili in Heraklion, Crete, has been abandoned by its inhabitants as the village has sunk due to waters from the dam of Aposelemi. However, the past few days the former villagers have managed to return to Sfentili in order to hold a special and unique mass in the church of Agios Theodoros, as the water from the lake has lowered and the church emptied out.
http://greece.greekreporter.com/2016/02/19/worshipers-return-to-resurfaced-sunken-church-in-crete-video/