Nisyros island is a small, round volcanic island of the Dodecanese between Kos and Tilos, with a wide caldera in the middle and a harbour town on the coast. It adds a volcano to the other tours in Greece that leave from the Aegean ports.
The page covers what and where the island is, its size and land, the villages, how the volcano formed, the Stefanos crater, the ancient story, Mandraki, Nikia and Emporio, the beaches and hot springs, food and drink, how to reach the island and move around, the seasons, and the questions travellers ask.
What is nisyros island, and where does it lie?
Wikipedia calls nisyros island a volcanic island and a municipality of the Dodecanese chain. Its neighbours there are Kos and Tilos. Wikivoyage places it just south of Kos, so Kos is to its north and Tilos beyond it, in the south-east.
Dodecanese literally means twelve islands, yet the group now counts 15 major islands. Nisyros island is one of them, as the Wikipedia article on the group lists. The same article puts the group off Anatolia and says Turkey borders it in the east. Its list of major islands also names Kos, Patmos, Rhodes and Tilos.
Spellings differ between pages. The Wikipedia page writes Nisyros and also gives the form Nisiros, while Wikivoyage and Visit Greece write Nisyros. Its entry on the nearby islet of Gyali cites a research paper that writes Nissyros. All three forms name the same nisyros island, so this page keeps the plain form Nisyros.
A note at the top of the Wikipedia page for nisyros island points readers to a separate entry, Nisyros (Karpathos). That entry covers an ancient town of the same name on Karpathos. The ancient town and the island share a name, so check which one a page means.
The EU space policy page says nisyros island joined the UNESCO Global Geoparks Network as the tenth Greek site. The listing reflects the geological and environmental value of the place, as the page states. The Geopark covers the entire island and the nearby islets, which volcanic and submarine processes formed over thousands of years.
On a map, nisyros island sits at about 36 degrees 35 minutes north. Its longitude is about 27 degrees 10 minutes east, as the Wikipedia page lists. The Wikipedia entry on Kos puts Kos north of Nisyros. The entry on Tilos calls Nisyros the north-western neighbour of Tilos.
The Visit Greece page calls Nisyros a small yet imposing island of the Dodecanese. It sums the place up in three highlights. The three are the active volcano with lunar landscapes and the villages with whitewashed houses. The third is the hiking trails over geothermal ground.
In administrative terms, the island belongs to the South Aegean region, as the Wikipedia infobox states. The infobox also gives the time zone as UTC plus two hours, and UTC plus three hours in summer. Read any ferry or bus time against that clock.
How big is nisyros island, and what shapes its land?
Nisyros island measures about 8 kilometres across, and its round shape covers 41.6 square kilometres, as the Wikipedia page states. The whole municipality, with its islets, adds up to 50.055 square kilometres of land. Wikivoyage reads the land as a volcanic cone with a collapsed centre.
Wikivoyage describes nisyros island as essentially a volcanic cone, with a big caldera that has collapsed in the middle. The hollow sits at the heart of the round shape. Visit Greece names the caldera and the geothermal fields as one natural landmark. Nikia stands on the southern ridge of the crater.
The Wikipedia page gives the volcano an elevation of 698 metres. The Oregon State volcano page names St. Elias as the highest point on nisyros island. Wikivoyage says the peak can be climbed.
The land of nisyros island has a close match on Tilos. The Tilos entry names red lava sand, pumice beds and volcanic lowlands there, and compares Tilos with its neighbour Nisyros. The same entry puts Tilos at about 61 square kilometres in size, which is bigger than the 41.6 of Nisyros.
The false-colour satellite image on the EU space policy page shows the land in three tones. It comes from Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery. The Stefanos crater sits in the centre of the picture. Red tones mark the vegetation. Grey and brown tones mark the bare surfaces and the lava fields.
One travel page ties the volcanic origin of the land to its minerals and its greenery. The same page calls the place an island of black rocks and white houses. Visit Greece adds that the hamlets of nisyros island are built from volcanic stone.
Terraced slopes once fed the people here. The Wikipedia page says the island once supplied its own needs, with crops grown on terraces. Today the crops are grown on a smaller scale. The old terraces still mark the slopes.
The municipality includes more than the main land of nisyros island. The Wikipedia page names Gyali as the largest islet nearby, with 22 residents. The page also lists five uninhabited islets: Pachia, Pergoussa, Kandelioussa, Agios Antonios and Strongyli.
How is nisyros island divided into villages?
Nisyros island has one main town and port, Mandraki, and three smaller villages: Pali, Nikia and Emporio. The Wikipedia page lists the four places by size, from 660 residents in Mandraki to 27 in Emporio. That shows how small the settlements are.
Mandraki lies in the north-west of nisyros island, where the ferries dock, as Wikivoyage states. The Wikipedia page calls it the main town and port. Visit Greece calls it both the capital and the harbour, and counts it among the bigger settlements of the island. It lists hotels and apartments among the facilities for visitors.
Pali is the village you reach by going east from Mandraki, as one travel page states. That page calls it a small fishing village, and Wikivoyage mentions Pali Harbour. The Wikipedia page lists it as Paloi, with 239 residents, in its list of places on nisyros island.
Wikivoyage counts Nikia as one of the two main villages of nisyros island, and it spells the name Nikea. The village sits on the ridge above the crater, in the south. Wikivoyage describes it as painted in blue and white. The Wikipedia page gives Nikia 61 residents.
Emporio is the smallest place on the list, with 27 residents. Its spelling changes from page to page: Wikipedia writes Emporeios, Wikivoyage writes Emborios, and one travel page writes Emboreios. That travel page places it on the road from Mandraki toward Pali. This page uses Emporio for nisyros island throughout.
The whole municipality of nisyros island has 1,048 inhabitants, according to the Wikipedia page. That works out at 20.93 people per square kilometre. The page adds that tourists and expatriate Nisyrians raise the number in summer. An older census line on the same page counts 1,008 residents, including 21 on Gyali.
Visit Greece describes the hamlets as built from volcanic stone, with pebble-paved squares and courtyards in vibrant colours. Its highlights list adds whitewashed houses and a traditional atmosphere. The next sections of this page visit Mandraki, Nikia and Emporio one by one.
How was the volcano of nisyros island formed?
The African plate sinks northward beneath the Aegean microplate. Oregon State University ties the volcano of nisyros island to that movement. It stands on the Hellenic island arc, at the eastern end. Santorini, a better known volcano, lies to its west. Wikipedia calls it a stratovolcano with a caldera.
Two explosive phases laid pyroclastic deposits over the older lava of nisyros island, says Oregon State. Each phase pushed a column of ash 15 to 20 kilometres into the sky. The falling ash made the deposits. The phases were probably thousands of years apart, about 25,000 years ago.
So much magma left the volcano that its summit fell in. The hollow left behind is the caldera of nisyros island. Wikipedia gives it a width of three to four kilometres. It adds that the caldera formed in the last 150,000 years, over three eruptive stages.
After the collapse, new eruptions built lava domes. Oregon State names two of them, Saint Elias and Nifios, both made of dacite. Together they form the west wall of the big depression inside the caldera of nisyros island. Saint John mountain stands on its east side. That depression has its floor about 100 metres up from the sea.
The historical record of nisyros island holds four eruptions, Wikipedia says. Almost all involved phreatic activity, which means steam explosions. Oregon State suspects an eruption in fourteen twenty-two. It reports earthquakes, loud blasts and flames of red and yellow in the eruption of eighteen seventy-one. A three-day eruption two years later opened a crater six to seven metres wide.
The strong eruption of eighteen eighty-eight ejected a pipe of volcanic material, cylindrical and 25 metres or more across. Mud, lapilli and steam came with it. In nineteen fifty-six observers noted fumaroles on the western and southern sides of Rammos, part of the big depression. Those events close the written record of the volcano of nisyros island.
Deep below nisyros island lies a geothermal field. Wikipedia gives its fluid a temperature above 350 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 18 bar. It lists the field as an important geothermal resource of the country.
What does the Stefanos crater show on nisyros island?
The Stefanos crater is the largest crater of the hydrothermal field on nisyros island. A European Union space page puts it at 330 metres wide and 27 metres deep. A path leads down from the rim to the floor of the crater.
Two travel pages call the craters the main attraction of nisyros island. Wikivoyage describes a floor stained yellow by sulphur, where a walker can come up to the steaming vents. A travel page adds that the walk down and up can be hard for older walkers and small children.
The crater lies on the caldera floor of nisyros island. Oregon State counts it among five explosion sinks that line the southern side of the big depression. A Greek hiking page calls its shape elliptical. It says the slopes are old debris deposits and the inside is alluvial deposits.
Hot fluid rises through fumaroles around the inner edge of the crater, the same hiking page explains. It rumbles as it flows below the floor. At the fumaroles of nisyros island the steam leaves at about 100 degrees Celsius. The steam is rich in water, hydrogen sulphide, carbon dioxide and methane. Mud pools form after rain and in humid weather.
A travel page says the air smells of sulphur, a little like a lit match. Signs at the crater of nisyros island tell visitors to enter at their own risk. The page asks walkers to stay away from venting steam and to watch for holes in the ground.
At other craters of nisyros island the safety note is just as plain. The hiking page asks visitors not to go down into the crater called Megalos Polyvotis when no wind blows. It gives the reason as the high level of carbon dioxide in the air.
The caldera of nisyros island holds more craters than Stefanos, which a travel page calls the main one. The hiking page names the crater of Mikros Stefanos and the Kaminakia craters, which lie on the south-east side. It also names Logothetis, Megalos Polyvotis, Mikros Polyvotis and Alexander on the hill of the post-caldera craters.
Who lived on nisyros island in ancient times?
According to Visit Greece, nisyros island has had people without a break since prehistoric times. The ancient city stood on the hill above Mandraki. Its walls of black volcanic stone still crown that hill today, as a Greek heritage page notes.
Greek myth tells how nisyros island came to be. Wikipedia retells how Poseidon tore a piece off Kos and flung it down on the giant Polybotes. The giant lay buried under it. Visit Greece adds that people once took the volcanic fumes for the angry breath of the beaten giant.
The geographer Strabo reports the old story that Nisyros is a fragment of Kos. Vase painters returned to the scene in the sixth century BC and again in the fifth. On one black-figure amphora in the Louvre, Poseidon bears the island of Nisyros upon his left shoulder.
The ancient name of nisyros island was Porphyris, Wikipedia says. One version of the myth says a missed trident of Poseidon became the island. Homer names the island in the Iliad. Wikipedia adds that it was apparently a source of millstones for early watermills. Antipater of Thessalonica, a poet of the first century BC, refers to this.
Wikipedia dates the ancient walls near Mandraki to the fifth century BC. It calls them part of the acropolis of nisyros island. A Greek heritage page dates a carved inscription in the wall to the fourth century BC, in its third quarter. That inscription helped to date the wall. The sources differ on the exact date.
The same heritage page gives the surviving south wall as 230 metres long. Six rectangular towers stand on that side, and another 80 metres in the east carry towers too. A travel page repeats these numbers. The builders used large blocks of black volcanic stone, and the wall is about 3.5 to 3.8 metres wide.
The only gate that survives sits at the south-eastern corner, in a protected spot, the heritage page says. It measures 2.10 metres across and is intact. Two stone stairs rise along the eastern leg of the wall. The southern one has 15 surviving steps, the second has 18. The ancient city of nisyros island has not yet been systematically excavated.
Two later empires touched the island. Rome made it part of the Insulae province, Wikipedia says. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, Genoese captains exercised sea control on behalf of the Byzantines.
What does Mandraki show on nisyros island?
Mandraki is the capital and the harbour of nisyros island. Its two-storey houses have wooden balconies, and the official tourism page says pumice stone insulates their volcanic rock walls. Above the town stand the castle of the Knights and a monastery built into a cave.
Walkers on nisyros island find pebbled floors in the squares of Mandraki. The official tourism page names the Square of the Dolphins as the typical example. Another page lists the old mill, the cobbled paths and the dome of the church of Panagia Potamitissa.
The Knights of Saint John left a castle on a high rock above the town. Wikipedia says they settled in the early fourteenth century and built a crusader castle. The coats of arms of the order’s magistrates decorate the walls. The official tourism page calls the castle a sign of the Knights on nisyros island.
The monastery of Panagia Spiliani stands beside the castle, with the larger part inside a cave. Its name means the Virgin of the cave. The cave holds two churches, one for the Assumption of the Virgin and one for Saint Charalambos. It is the largest monastery on nisyros island.
Faith on nisyros island has centred on this monastery since the eighteenth century, a Greek islands page states. The same page says the Dormition celebration lasts nine days, from the sixth to the fifteenth of August. Women pilgrims make three hundred prostrations daily, and a procession follows in Mandraki on the day itself.
The Archaeological Museum tells the early story of the island. A Greek museum page says its first room holds finds from the prehistoric settlement on the islet of Gyali. These date to the fourth millennium BC. The official tourism page adds that other exhibits come from the burial ground of the ancient town.
The Historical and Folklore Museum fills an eighteenth-century mansion that the municipality restored. Its rooms copy a traditional house, with a kitchen, an oven and a bedroom. The municipal page lists plows, scythes, hand mills and jars, the daily tools of the Nisyrians. The ancient acropolis of Palaiokastro, on the edge of town, looks over Mandraki and Gyali.
What do Nikia and Emporio show on nisyros island?
Nikia and Emporio are the two mountain villages of nisyros island. Nikia stands on the caldera edge, and its oval square, Porta, has a pebble mosaic. Emporio lies on the road east of Mandraki and holds inhabited houses beside ruined ones.
Porta is the central square of Nikia, and the narrow streets of the village all end there. The local craftsman Paschalis Paschalakis made the mosaic. A church of the Virgin Mary rises above the square. One page calls Porta a much-photographed spot of nisyros island.
The old school beside the square now holds the Volcanological Museum. Two pages call it the first and only volcano museum in Greece. Its displays hold photographs and facts on the volcano of nisyros island and on active volcanoes elsewhere. A Greek museum page says it stays open all year.
From Nikia one side of the view holds the Aegean and the other side holds the craters. A Greek islands page names two viewpoints over the caldera of nisyros island. Wikivoyage adds that one looks down into the crater valley. Restored houses in bright colours line the alleys.
The highest point of Nikia holds the ruins of a castle with views of the volcano. Another viewpoint is the church of Profitis Ilias. A paved road leads up to it. A travel page counts three hundred and fifty steps from the car park of Nikia. One page says the view covers the whole of nisyros island.
Emporio, the second mountain village of nisyros island, lies on the road that runs east from Mandraki toward Pali. A travel page describes inhabited houses beside ruined ones. A second page says the upper part is mainly in ruins and a free car park serves the lower part. A paved road also reaches the upper part.
A Greek travel page says Emporio was the trading port of the island until the Middle Ages. Because of piracy, the settlement moved higher, to a safer place that controls the area around it. Wikivoyage adds that the tavern in Emporio has a view of the crater valley.
According to Wikivoyage, the two mountain villages of nisyros island have only one or two restaurants each. A travel page names a dirt road by the church of Agia Maria with a view of the volcano.
Which beaches and hot springs belong to nisyros island?
The coasts of nisyros island are generally rocky or pebbled, as Wikipedia states. Sandy beaches lie mainly in the north-east. Hot springs rise at points along the coast, from Loutra near Mandraki to Avlaki in the far south. The beaches are volcanic, with dark sand and black pebbles.
Chochlaki is the beach closest to Mandraki, near the monastery of Panagia Spiliani. Its name comes from the large, smooth pebbles on the shore and in the sea. The official tourism page adds a cave, rocks and black volcanic pebbles. A travel page counts it among the popular beaches of nisyros island.
Gialiskari lies north of Mandraki, on the way to Pali. Its sand is dark with pebbles today. Mining of pumice once whitened the shore, so the beach was known as the white coast, as two pages explain. Agios Savvas, a small beach on the north-west side, has dark sand and coarse pebbles.
Pali is a fishing village with a beach on the north coast of nisyros island. The beach is about four hundred metres long. A beach page describes dark fine sand, large pebbles at the water’s edge and tamarisk trees for shade. Tavernas stand near the water.
Lies, on the eastern side, is a set of small coves. One page gives the beach a length above one and a half kilometres, and another says over a mile. A travel page notes that the road ends here. Two pages call the beaches of nisyros island unorganised, with no sunbeds to rent, so travellers bring water.
Pachia Ammos, whose name means thick sand, is reached on foot. Two pages give a walk of about fifteen minutes, from Lies or from the nearest car park. A beach page gives the beach a length of about three hundred and fifty metres, hidden by dunes and bushes.
Avlaki is a pebbly cove at the far south end, with a small pier for swimming. Two pages describe shallow water above black and red stones. Two travel pages place hot springs at Avlaki, and one calls them the hottest on nisyros island.
Loutra is the municipal spa of nisyros island, east of the harbour of Mandraki. One page gives its water as 37 degrees Celsius, and springs along the coast run from 30 to 60 degrees. Near Pali stand the derelict buildings of the old Pantelidis baths, a large spa from the late nineteenth century.
Which foods and drinks belong to nisyros island?
Soumada, a drink made from bitter almond, is the signature drink of nisyros island. Wikipedia calls it a traditional, non-alcoholic almond drink. The national farm portal adds that islanders still make it on a household scale, just like their wine.
A volcanic island sounds barren, yet the national farm portal calls the land immensely fertile. It lists chickpeas, barley and capers among the local crops and calls the capers uniquely flavourful. Goats and sheep live there too. For a traveller, the table on nisyros island starts with the soil.
Herds of goats and sheep give milk for the local cheeses. The portal names kopanisti and tis trygias, a goat cheese dipped in red wine. It also names sakouliasti, a cheese eaten mainly as a spread. A Greek news site adds fresh mizithra and a white goat cheese.
The portal lists kapamas, which is goat stuffed with rice and offal, and chickpea fritters. The portal also lists boukounies, a pork dish where the meat cooks in its own fat. It also adds bogana, lamb slow-cooked in a Dutch oven with potatoes and plenty of garlic. These are home dishes of nisyros island.
For sweets, the portal names halva with almonds, which islanders call halouvas, and xerotigana. Pastelaries complete the list, and these are figs filled with almond slivers and sesame. The news site adds moschopoulias, which are fried, syrupy baklavas. Almonds appear in the sweets as well as in the drink.
The same news site adds fish and honey. It describes fish soup, steamed mussels and vinegared octopus beside the boats. It says the aromatic herbs give an extremely aromatic honey. Fish and honey also belong to nisyros island. The site names kanelada too, a soft drink of syrup flavoured with cinnamon.
Both pages say wine is made at home. The news site says it is made for the family’s own use. It also names kukouzina, a spirit distilled from grape stems or figs. So the wine of nisyros island is a household product.
How do travellers reach and move around nisyros island?
Travellers reach nisyros island by sea, through the port of Mandraki. The official tourism page lists two sea routes. The Rhodes ferry takes one hour and thirty minutes. The Piraeus ferry takes thirteen hours and thirty minutes. Both times are as that page states them.
Wikipedia says the island is reachable by ship from Piraeus, Rhodes and Kos. It adds daily trips in summer from Kardamena on Kos. Wikivoyage lists a summer boat that leaves Kardamena at half past nine and returns at half past three. The summer link to nisyros island from Kos starts there.
Sailings to nisyros island do not follow a regular daily schedule, as Wikivoyage states. They become less frequent in winter. A fast catamaran goes to Rhodes on certain days, by way of Tilos. Schedules differ with the season, so check the latest sailing list while you plan.
A travel page calls the harbour of Mandraki small and active. It lists excursion boats, small ferries and high-speed boats, a number of them linking the island to its neighbours. Large ferries on the Piraeus and Rhodes line also stop there, between one and four in the morning. A night arrival on nisyros island is possible.
A Greek travel page states that the island has no airport. Wikipedia lists a heliport on the island. The ways in that the pages list are the ship and the heliport. The runway question is simple, because nisyros island has no airport.
Each village is compact, so Wikivoyage says a visitor walks around it on foot. Taxis are scarce, at roughly two on the island, and the bus between the villages runs only now and then. The main port has hire for cars and motorcycles. A travel page adds that the crater lies a 25 minute drive from Mandraki.
A travel page calls the bus service limited. It says a rented car is the better choice, and the car is needed for one day only. Another page suggests the bus to the crater and a walk back on the path. Moving around nisyros island by car takes a single day.
A walker on nisyros island finds numbered, colour-coded paths, with a number ending at beaches. Wikivoyage rates the hike between Mandraki and Nikia, by way of the crater, as half a day. The only petrol station stands near Loutra, east of Mandraki.
When do travellers visit nisyros island, and what do they pack?
Travellers choose summer for nisyros island because the daily boats from Kos run then. The boats arrive each morning, and the quiet returns after the afternoon sailings. Wikivoyage describes this pattern and recommends staying one night for the calm.
Wikivoyage says hundreds of day visitors arrive in summer and leave in the afternoon. It also warns that the hotels are a short list and can be full on certain days. Wikipedia gives the island mild winters and hot summers. A winter trip to nisyros island needs more planning for the sea link.
A travel page advises Mandraki before eleven or after three in the afternoon. It names Nikia before half past eleven, and the crater before a quarter past eleven. Wikivoyage also puts the day visitors at the crater around eleven. So a calm visit to nisyros island fits the hours before eleven and after three.
The same page says the main crater can be very hot in summer. It advises a very early start in summer, or a visit from the later afternoon. It reports blowing dust, and visitors without sun glasses struggled. Another page says the ground inside the crater can be hot. Wikivoyage notes a small cafe with shaded seats after the entrance.
Wikipedia states that etesian winds reach the island between June and August. The Greek name for this summer wind is the meltemi. Wikipedia adds that the wind can be especially strong here, because of jet effects while it crosses Kos. That wind belongs to the weather of nisyros island.
A travel page tells crater visitors to skip flip-flops, wear a hat, use sunscreen and bring water. Wikivoyage names the height gain, the sun and the water supply as the points to watch. The packing list for nisyros island is short: sun cover, water, shoes and sun glasses.
The official tourism page says the Orthodox Church marks the Dormition of the Virgin Mary on the fifteenth of August. A travel page says the monastery of Panagia Kyra marks the day with a big festival, called a panigiri. August brings a festival day to nisyros island.
What else do travellers ask about nisyros island?
Is the volcano of nisyros island active?
The volcano of nisyros island is active but quiet. Wikipedia calls it currently active but not erupting, while the island’s official page calls it a dormant active volcano. Steam vents, called fumaroles, still stand at the craters.
The official page places the last magmatic action about 20,000 years ago. Wikipedia lists the latest activity as a steam explosion in the late nineteenth century. Small ash eruptions came earlier in that century. Deep drilling found temperatures near 500 degrees Celsius, and the official page places molten rock three to five kilometres down.
Earthquakes are frequent on nisyros island. A spell of unrest in the nineteen-nineties led an international team to begin monitoring, as part of an EU-sponsored project. The official page adds that gas from hundreds of points stays at or below 100.1 degrees Celsius. It is mainly water vapour.
Does nisyros island have an airport?
The official page for nisyros island sends travellers from Athens by plane to Kos or Rhodes, then on by sea. Wikivoyage lists one way in, by sea, and Wikipedia adds that the island has a heliport.
For the long route, the municipality names a ship from Piraeus that approaches the port of Nisyros. It also links the ferry timetables. The national tourism board gives the sea legs in hours. Rhodes to Nisyros takes one hour and thirty minutes. Piraeus to Nisyros takes thirteen hours and thirty minutes.
A plan for the trip therefore starts with a seat on a boat. Wikivoyage states that sailings do not run to a regular daily schedule. They become less frequent in the winter months. It points to schedules online. Settle the boat day first, then build the other days around it.
How far does nisyros island lie from Kos, and how long is the crossing?
Wikivoyage places nisyros island only a handful of miles away from Kos, on its southern side. Wikipedia sets the islet of Yali at the middle of that gap. In the high season, daily ferries cross from Kardamena on Kos.
Wikivoyage gives a summer timetable for the short hop. A boat leaves Kardamena at 9:30 for Mandraki and returns at 15:30. That window of six hours holds both crossings and the time ashore. The page names no crossing time of its own.
Wikivoyage names Mandraki, up on the north-west side, as the place where the ferries dock. Wikipedia confirms that the daily summer trips start from Kardamena, a village on Kos. The volcanic complex of nisyros island includes the seafloor between the two islands, Gyali and a part of Kos.
What is Yali, the neighbour of nisyros island, known for?
Yali, also spelled Gyali or Giali, is known for pumice and obsidian. This volcanic islet belongs to the municipality of nisyros island. The Greek name means glass, and the mining of pumice there runs on a very large scale.
Two segments make up the islet. Obsidian forms almost the whole of the northeast, while the southwest holds the pumice. A narrow isthmus and a beach of reef sediments join them. The islet is six kilometres long and covers 4.558 square kilometres. Its highest point reaches 180 metres.
Yali has a very old past. Wikipedia dates the first occupation, probably seasonal, to the early fourth millennium BC. Those settlers worked obsidian and made pottery. Later pumice eruptions covered soils holding Neolithic finds. Andreas Miaoulis used Gyali as a hideaway after the revolution of the early nineteenth century.
How long does a visit to nisyros island need?
A day trip covers the crater and Mandraki, yet Wikivoyage calls one night on nisyros island worth it. Day boats from Kos leave in the afternoon, and the island returns to its calm once they have gone.
Wikivoyage counts hundreds of day-trip visitors on the island each summer day. Their boats from Kos land early and sail home after noon. The page advises avoiding the crater at about 11:00, when those visitors arrive.
A night suits walkers. The two main villages, Mandraki and Nikia, lie half a day’s hike apart by the route through the crater. Wikivoyage tells hikers to watch the climb and the sun and to pack enough water.
Rooms are limited on nisyros island. Wikivoyage says the island has little choice of hotels, and on certain days all of them are booked out. Book ahead for a night, as the page advises.