Thassos is the northest island of Aegean Sea and is an ideal destination for holidays. It combines crystal clear beaches beaches with smooth sands and lush forests dotted with pine and olive trees virtually next to the sea! It is filled with picturesque traditional villages and stunningly beautiful seaside small towns. Thassos offers to all visitors unique vacations.
Lying close to the coast of Eastern Macedonia, Thassos was inhabited from the Palaeolithic period onwards, but the earliest settlement to have been explored in detail is that at Limenaria where Middle and Late Neolithic remains have been found that relate closely to those of the Drama Plain. In contrast, the remains of the Early Bronze Age on the island align it with the culture that developed in the Cyclades and Sporades to the south in the Aegean. At Skala Sotiros for example, a small settlement was encircled by a strongly built defensive wall. Even earlier activity is demonstrated by the presence of large pieces of 'megalithic' anthropomorphic stelai built into these walls, which, so far, have no parallels in the Aegean area.
There is then a gap in the archaeological record until the end of the Bronze Age c 1100 BC, when the first burials took place at the large cemetery of Kastri in the interior of the island. Here built tombs covered with small mound of earth were typical until the end of the Iron Age. In the earliest tombs were a small number of locally imitated Mycenaean pottery vessels, but the majority of the hand-made pottery with incised decoration reflects connections eastwards with Thrace and beyond.
Thassos, the capital (now informally known as Limenas, or "the port"), stood on the north side of the island, and had two harbours. Archilochus described Thassos as "an ass's backbone crowned with wild wood," and the description still suits the mountainous island with its forests of fir and pine. Besides its gold mines, the wine, nuts and marble of Thassos were well known in antiquity. Thasian wine (a light bodied wine with a characteristic apple scent) was, in particular, quite famous; to the point where all Thasian coins carried the head of the wine god Dionysos on one side and bunches of grape of the other.
Thassos is served by ferry routes to and from Kavala and Keramoti. The latter is a port close to Kavala International Airport, and has the shortest possible crossing to the island.
