Home life in Hellas, Greece and the Greeks - eBooks4Greeks.gr

THE ISLES 85realise the central position of the favoured isle.Naxos and Paros rise from the deep blue waterson one hand, Tenos and Andros on the other.In the south-west Siphnos and Seriphos and moredistant Keos, and in the west, much nearer, isSyra, the successor of Delos, the capital andadministrative centre of the Cyclades.In 1825 Luke Ralli, with the consent of hisfellow-refugees from Scio, named theirnew settlementHermoupolis, from the name of the shipHermes, in which they had arrived three yearsbefore. In the same year, 1825, the first twostoreyedhouse was built. They had lived in hutsbefore. That was the beginning of modern Syra.Hermoupolis speedily became the largest city inthe Greek dominions. Athens and Piraeus haveoutstripped it since, but it still compares favourablywith either in some respects.It is far cleaner thanthe latter and better drained than the former.the only place in the Cyclades thatIt ishas horses andcarriages. It has a university, well-equippedschools, an elegant theatre, well-stocked shops,handsome private houses, a very fine square pavedwith marble, engineering works, and dry docks.It is a centre of the Eastern Telegraph Companyall the great lines of steamers call there ;it is indaily communication with Greece and the otherislands, and inalmost daily communication withConstantinople on the one hand and WesternEurope on the other. The refugees, who weresurvivors of the massacre of Scio, were mostly