Cyclops Cave, Makri

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Cyclops Cave, Makri

Landmark — Makri, ~10km east of the city

Above Makri beach, a short marked trail with a wooden handrail leads up to a cave locally identified as the lair of Polyphemus — the Cyclops blinded by Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey. The entrance is modest, about five metres deep and three metres high, opening into two small chambers.

Myth aside, the site is genuinely significant: a Neolithic settlement inside the cave dates back roughly 6,500 years, among the more important Balkan finds of its kind, discovered during the First World War and excavated since 1988.

The view from the cave mouth back over the Thracian Sea is worth the short climb on its own, myth or no myth.

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