Serifos
Nature
In the prehistoric times, Serifos was
uninhabited, as the rest of the Cycladic
islands, with rich flora and fauna. This
began to change during the Neolithic period,
when the islands were inhabited and people
began burning forests to create fields and
grasslands. This is how the Cycladic
landscape, as we know it today, was formed.
Its main characteristics are the bushy
vegetation, where the land is cultivated as
grassland, and the land terraces, where they
cultivated grains, vineyards or a few olive
trees. There have been times when Serifos
and the neighbouring islands were
systematically cultivated and could feed an
important part of the population. However,
today most of the land terraces remain waste
as the inhabitants are mainly involved in
tourism.
The soil of Serifos
was known for its wealth in
minerals, to which the island
owes its riches during the antiquity.
According to the island’s history, the
growth of Serifos was such that since the 6th
B.C. century it had its own currency. The
most important minerals were lievrite and
green quartz.
The green quartz of Serifos is considered
particularly rare and that found in the
Megalo or Mia Chorio is exhibited in the
mineralogical museum of Paris. Today,
Serifos is famous in the scientific circles
of Europe because in its bowels there are
still hidden minerals of good crystalline
formations. Some of these minerals are:
granite, andradite, fluorite, hematite,
limonite, galena, magnetite and malachite.
The most famous mines were in
Koutalas, in
Megalo or Mia Chorio.
During their wandering in Serifos, the
visitors see low vegetation
consisting mainly of brushwood, caper,
oregano, thyme, prickly pears, geraniums,
squirting cucumbers, vines and olive trees.
In the seabed there are colonies of
the popular sea plant, poseidonia oceanica,
which is protected by the European
legislation.
South Serifos forms a wide network of
habitats for the flora and the rich fauna of
the region because of the combination of its
geomorphologic and hydrogeological
formations. Therefore, South Serifos has
been integrated in the Natura 2000 network
of the European Union under the code name
GR4220009.
The region of Serifos integrated in the
Natura 2000
The Natura 2000 network
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