Chimaros Tower in Naxos

Chimaros Tower in Naxos island, Cyclades: Chimaros Tower is one of the important monuments in Naxos. Along with Portara, this is a point of reference for the island, located between Filoti village and Kalandros beach. In this secluded and impressive location is an imposing tower of 15 m tall today, although its original height was 17m.

Constructed in the 4th century BC, this round tower has large marble stones of local origin in the external side and stones of various dimensions and material in the internal side. This tower had an intense defensive use, as is evident by the impressive height, the only window that is found at 10m and the narrow loopholes. In the tower interior, there is a ground floor and three floors connected with a marble staircase. This staircase is today destroyed in large scale.

Towers of this type were very frequent in Cyclades islands, although today only a few of them survive, such as the Tower of Agios Petros in Andros and the Tower of Agia Marina in Kea. Recently a reconstruction study for Chimaros Tower was approved by the Central Archaeological Board of Greece and this important monument will be restored.