The Greek Island of Fourni is one of the most eastern of the group of Greek Islands known as the Cyclades (kick-laad-es), or the “white Islands” as they are often called, due to the classic little white houses that are always associated with Greek Islands.
The main local transport of Fourni Island
It is also one of the smallest and least visited by tourists, mainly due to its distance from Athens and the limited number of Ferries that visit it. As a result life in Fourni goes on pretty much as it always would have with very little concern for the outside world. The locals are friendly and relaxed, always up for a chat, a coffee or something stronger, more people on the island have a boat than have a car, and it’s not unusual to see 4 people perched precariously on the same scooter putting up the main street.
A short scooter ride (with only 2 people on it) from the township of Fourni, the main town on the Island of Fourni, is this amazing beach called Petrokopio. What makes this beach unique for me is that rather than sand, the beach is covered with rounded worn pieces of marble, from the ancient marble quarry right behind the beach. If you look carefully on the right hand side of this image (click on the image to enlarge) you can see the discarded half finished pieces from the stone masons, huge square blocks, segments of pillars over a metre across, a stone basin and a huge alter table, complete with scrolled ends, all carved and chipped out of the natural marble dug from the quarry many hundreds of years ago.
Petrokopio beach Quarry, Fourni Island at Twilight
I was unable to find out exactly how long ago this quarry was in use, but i did find out it was the source of stone for a large Athenian temple on a neighbouring island that was built many hundreds of years back, and the discarded half finished pieces were from that project. In any other place this would be the roped off site of an archaeological dig or a museum, but In a country like Greece, where any where you dig you unearth ancient ruins, this is nothing of significance, just another old quarry on a pretty beach… The biggest problem the Greeks had when building the underground in Athens was not the engineering required, it was that they kept running into archaeologically priceless ancient ruins! in a brilliant solution, each underground station is now an ancient history museum, with the artefacts still half buried in the walls.
For those who are interested, this Image shot on the Canon 5d with the 16-35mm f2.8L lens at 16mm. Its 13 double exposure pairs aligned in PT Gui Pro, then manually blended.
Lesley Walker 
Carol Darby 
Luke Austin 
Carol Darby 
Richard Cofrancesco 
Rob Lewis
I can easily feel the strength and the power coming out from our original Mother Nature’s soul through your talent of shooting. Great Works. Love each of them.
Thanks Diana, i am really just the observer in all this, occasionally recording a bit here and a bit there. The real point is to be there and feel it all happening, thats the best for me. Cheers
It is quite true, nature is the best of the arts. It’s better to be there to experience it for yourself. You and Peter Like are so lucky to have the ability to travel all over the world to capture rare images of nature to share with everyone who enjoys to view this type of photography. Thanks for sharing!
You’re right Diana, i do feel lucky, every time i’m out someplace beautiful i remember that. More to come…
[...] Whatever the reason, for me Ikaria was a paradise of rivers, waterfalls and freshwater crayfish (i tend to eat those now…), with lots of long lovely walking trails through shady forests and rocky gorges, that would take you down to places like this one… I didn’t find any freshwater crayfish, but i did find some very cute little freshwater crabs and some very small shrimp… I didn’t eat any of them, and i did spend many hours here just sitting. Bliss. The Temple of Artemis, Ikaria This one is the beach below the town of Nas on the Greek Island of Ikaria, it is also the opening to the sea of the Chalares Canyon from a previous post. On the opposite bank of the river is the site of an ancient temple of Artemis, the Greek Goddess of the wilderness, the hunt, wild animals and fertility; there’s not much left of it now but the sea wall and the foundations, but it is a beautiful site. I just found out the other day that this temple was originally built from stone quarried from Petrokopio beach on the neighbouring island of Fourni which featured in this post [...]
WOW! Greece is just gorgeous. The panorama stitch with multiple exposures is amazing. I would hate to think how long that took to put together. I think you need to post more images from this trip as I can imagine you have some fantastic ones – as you always do. Carol
Greece certainly is beautiful, no doubt Carol. What i especially like is the unexpected diversity of the landscape and the islands. I wasn’t expecting forests, rivers and waterfalls somehow. many images to come, i shall have to work faster!