A cave out of the Odyssey!
The cave is 350m long with width ranging between 15 and 50 m. There are two openings for entering. The cave is interesting for its stalactite and stalagmite relief but also for its connection with Homer's Odyssey. Specifically in rhapsody i352-452 Homer refers to the Kikones and Maron, the priest of Apollo in the city of Ismaros.
Human presence is testified in the cave, though not continuous. The first evidence of use comes from the Neolithic period and the early Bronze Age, whereas the last dates to the Byzantine, towards the late 12th and 13th c. AD.
The organized settlement in this period is justified by the upheavals in the Byzantine Empire due to civil wars between the emperors and the attacks by the Catalans on the coast of Thrace. The excavations brought to light burials and many sherds from commercial wine amphorae from the late antiquity, so the cave would have served for storage.
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