Kymi (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: , ) is a coastal town and a former municipality (6,706 inhabitants in 2021) in the island of

Euboea Euboea ( ; , ), also known by its modern spelling Evia ( ; , ), is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete, and the sixth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, named after an ancient Greek town of the same name. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Kymi-Aliveri, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 167.616 km².

History

The ancient Euboean Kyme is mentioned as a harbor town related to the more prominent '' poleis'' of Chalkis and

Eretria Eretria (; , , , , literally 'city of the rowers') is a town in Euboea, Greece, facing the coast of Attica across the narrow South Euboean Gulf. It was an important Greek polis in the 6th and 5th century BC, mentioned by many famous writers ...

in antiquity. Together with these, it is sometimes named as the founding ''metropolis'' of the homonymous Kymē (Cumae) in Italy, an important early Euboean colony, which was probably named after it. According to

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

, Hippocles of Cyme, an ancient Greek oecist, was from here. He, along with Megasthenes of Chalcis, founded the colony near the area where then Rome flourished. This new colony contributed its

Euboean alphabet Many local variants of the Greek alphabet were employed in ancient Greece during the archaic and early classical periods, until around 400 BC, when they were replaced by the classical 24-letter alphabet that is the standard today. All forms ...

to the culture of the area, which subsequently became the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

. There are few relevant archaeological traces in the area and its exact location is not known. A

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

settlement has been excavated in nearby Mourteri. Some modern authors believe that Kyme never existed as an independent ''polis'' in historical times but that it was a mere village dependent on either Chalkis or Eretria. In a woodcut map of Euboea of 1528, by

Benedetto Bordone Benedetto Bordone (died 1531) was a Venetian manuscript editor, Portrait miniature, miniaturist and cartographer. He was born in Padua, then part of the Republic of Venice. His date of birth is unknown but his parents were married in Padua in 144 ...

, it is mentioned as Chimi.

Geography

It is located on a hilltop near the shores, on the Aegean side of the Euboea island. It has its own port, down from the hilltop, serving a line to Skyros island and some commercial traffic. Ortari mountain is located northwest of Kymi.

Attractions

Kymi is a small town and the surrounding region overlooks the Aegean Sea. Due to its vantage point, Kymi is sometimes called "The Balcony of the Aegean". Kymi has one of the largest man-made ports in the country and serves as a transportation hub for the eastern Aegean Islands and northern Greece. The city Kymi is considered the greenest of Greece in terms of native vegetation and is second all in clean sand beaches. There are numerous tourist and sightseeing attractions, such as the house of the noted pathologist and researcher George Papanicolaou, inventor of the Pap smear, the Folklore Museum of Kymi, the Monastery of the Transfiguration, three small Byzantine churches in Oxilithos, the Archaeological Collection and the Archaeological Sites, and a ruined Venetian tower in San handkerchief etc. The most well known agricultural products produced in Kymi are figs, cherries and olive oil. Local specialties include the "cocoon display," handicrafts made from cocoons, and sweets such as baklava and almond.

Notable people

* Georgios Papanikolaou (1883–1962), physician, pioneer in cytology and early cancer detection, and inventor of the

pap test The Papanicolaou test (abbreviated as Pap test, also known as Pap smear (AE), cervical smear (BE), cervical screening (BE), or smear test (BE)) is a method of cervical screening used to detect potentially precancerous and cancerous processes i ...

for

cervical cancer Cervical cancer is a cancer arising from the cervix or in any layer of the wall of the cervix. It is due to the abnormal growth of cells that can invade or spread to other parts of the body. Early on, typically no symptoms are seen. Later sympt ...

* Nikolaos Pappas (1930–2013), Admiral and commander of the destroyer , mutinied in 1973 in protest against the Regime of the Colonels, later Chief of the Greek Navy and government minister * Ioannis Velissariou (1861–1913), Major and

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans, Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg), Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, M ...

military hero

Climate

Transportation

The road network in the Kymi region is quite underdeveloped. There is only one major road (regional road) connecting the city of Kymi with Chania Avlonariou (a part of Avlonari), Aliveri and from there to the Greek National Road 44 towards Chalkis and Karystos. There is also a half-unpaved road to Hiliadou beach and the nearby north Euboea villages. The port connects to the island of

Skyros Skyros (, ), in some historical contexts Romanization of Greek, Latinized Scyros (, ), is an island in Greece. It is the southernmost island of the Sporades, an archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Around the 2nd millennium BC, the island was known as ...

, Skopelos, Alonnisos.

Sports

Kymi has a few basketball courts, as well as an outdoor football pitch. There is also a sports club called Kymi Sports Club, with teams in football, basketball and volleyball.

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Euboea Kymi-Aliveri Ancient Euboea Cities in ancient Greece