Vikos Gorge
ฮฆฮฑฯฮฌฮณฮณฮน ฯฮฟฯ ฮฮฏฮบฮฟฯ
Interesting facts
- In 2023 the gorge became part of the Zagori Cultural Landscape, Greece's first World Heritage site listed as a cultural landscape.
- The Voidomatis, the river born at the foot of the gorge, takes its name from the phrase 'eye of the ox', a nod to its clear blue water.
- The Voidomatis is often described as one of the cleanest rivers in Europe.
- Perched on the very edge of the gorge near Monodendri stands the Monastery of Agia Paraskevi, built in the 15th century.
- The surrounding national park, founded in 1973, is one of the last strongholds of the brown bear in Europe and holds around 1,800 plant species.
- Studies of the Voidomatis basin have identified three major phases of glaciation, the last peaking roughly 22,000 to 20,000 years ago.
- Excavations at the Klithi rock shelter in 1983โ1986 revealed traces of Palaeolithic hunters dating to roughly 20,000โ12,000 years ago.
- The Molossian settlement above the gorge between Monodendri and Vitsa included stone houses and two cemeteries.
- The Zagori villages around the gorge are linked by dozens of arched stone bridges and cobbled mule paths built mostly in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Why it is worth it
The Vikos Gorge cuts through the southern flank of Mount Tymfi in the Pindus Mountains of Epirus, in northwestern Greece. It is about 32 km long, its walls drop from 120 to as much as 1,350 metres, and it narrows in places to just a few metres across. The Guinness Book of Records has listed it as the deepest gorge in the world in proportion to its width โ a claim others contest, but one that is easy to believe when standing on its rim.
The gorge lies at the heart of the VikosโAoรถs National Park, in the Zagori region. Its main section runs from between the villages of Vitsa and Koukouli to the village of Vikos, and for most of its length the stream on its floor is seasonal; only toward the end do the springs of the Voidomatis River rise and give it a permanent flow. Because the gorge slices so deep into the mountain, its walls expose a whole sequence of limestone: young Eocene rock at the top, older layers below, and grey Jurassic dolomite in the depths. Glaciers reached down close to the valley floor in the Pleistocene, and deposits they left behind still fill parts of the Voidomatis valley.
The slopes are almost untouched, a refuge for rare animals such as the chamois, which lives on the high cliffs of side ravines like Megas Lakos. The flora was once the pharmacy of the "Vikos doctors", local healers whose herbal recipes echoed those of Hippocrates and Dioscorides โ lemon balm, St John's wort, mountain tea and many more; a collection of about 2,500 dried plants is kept in the natural history museum at Koukouli. Human traces are old too: epipaleolithic finds have come from the Klithi rock shelter by the Voidomatis, and a small Molossian settlement stood between Monodendri and Vitsa in the 9th to 4th centuries BC.
There are two classic viewpoints. The Oxia platform, reached by road about 8 km from Monodendri, looks straight into the deepest part of the gorge; Beloi, on the eastern side near Vradeto, offers a second great view across the gorge. A hiking trail descends into the gorge from Monodendri and follows it north to the Voidomatis springs, with paths climbing out to Papingo or to the village of Vikos; another route runs south toward the 18th-century stone bridges near Kipi.
Getting there
The gorge lies in the Zagori villages north of Ioannina, about 31 km from the city. The nearest airport is Ioannina (IOA), about 27 km away. Monodendri, Vikos and Papingo are the usual starting points for the trail and viewpoints.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Vikos Gorge or Vikos Canyon is a gorge in the Pindus Mountains of northwestern Greece. It lies on the southern slopes of Mount Tymphe with a length of about 32ย km, depth ranging from 120 to 1350 m, and a width ranging from 2500 m to only a few meters at its narrowest part.
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